Phis  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


I 


SKETCH 


THE   PHILOSOPHY 


AMERICAN  LITERATURE 


BY 


GREENOUGH  WHITE,  A.M. 


BOSTON,   U.S.A. 

PUBLISHED   BY   GINN   &   COMPANY 
1891 


COPYRIGHT,  1890, 
BY  GREENOUGH  WHITE. 


TYPOGRAPHY  BY  J.  S.  GUSHING  &  Co.,  BOSTON,  U.S.A. 


PRESSWORK  BY  GINN  &  Co.,  BOSTON,  U.S.A. 


PS3 


\ 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  outline  is  an  attempt  to  prove  the  inde 
pendent  and  organic  development  of  American  literature. 
The  author  has  often  heard  persons  otherwise  well-informed 
speak  apologetically,  even  contemptuously,  of  their  country's 
literature,  as  a  mere  pallid  reflection  of  literary  fashions  beyond 
the  Atlantic.  Were  it  such,  there  could  be  no  more  telling 
criticism  of  American  intellect ;  no  clearer  proof  could  be 
afforded  of  a  supposed  degeneracy  of  the  race  when  trans 
planted  to  American  soil,  and  of  the  worthlessness  of  our  civi 
lization;  for  literature  is  an  index  of  the_  worth  of  nations. 
But  the  apology  is  unnecessary,  the  sneer  ignorant ;  the  state 
ment  is  not  true  and  never  has  been.  Bradford  and  Hooker, 
Edwards  and  Franklin,  Channing,  Emerson,  and  Hawthorne, 
Webster,  Prescott,  and  Motley,  were  not  intellectual  parasites. 

It  is  easy  to  explain  the  origin  of  this  misconception.  The 
failure  of  the  Protectorate  put  an  end  to  the  Puritan  ideal  in 
England,  and  in  sharpest  contrast  with  it  were  the  habits  of 
thought  introduced  by  the  restoration  of  the  House  of  Stuart, 
—  habits  of  late  and  gradual  growth  in  New  England,  hardly 
perceptible,  indeed,  by  the  keenest  scrutiny  before  the  begin 
ning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Hence  the  advance  of  thought 


IV  PREFACE. 

in  America  has  been,  historically,  about  one  generation  behind 
each  corresponding  advance  in  England,  and  thus  appears 
merely  imitative  to  the  superficial  observer. 

Our  literature  has  really  developed  with  admirable  freedom, 
energy,  and  completeness.  It  has  not  been  dwarfed  by 
those  influences  nor  have  its  epochs  been  cut  short  by  those 
political  and  international  complications  that  have  so  often 
thwarted  mental  progress  in  other  lands.  It  shows  the  natural 
unfolding  of  intellect  freed  from  old-world  trammels  yet  limited 
by  the  necessities  of  practical  life.  Its  growth  has  been 
dynamic,  and  is  fruitful  in  suggestion  to  one  who  studies  the 
rise  of  new  literary  and  artistic  forms  to  suit  newly  developed 
wants. 

It  has  been  our  task  to  show  how  intimate  is  the  connection 
between  our  country's  literature  and  history,  and  how  essential 
is  a  knowledge  of  each  in  order  to  interpret  the  other.  Yet 
to  prevent  misunderstanding  it  is  necessary  to  add  that  this  is 
not  a  sketch  of  American  history  (though  it  is  hoped  that  the 
principles  that  guide  historical  progress  have  been  clearly 
presented),  nor  does  it  aim  to  give  details  concerning  the  lives 
of  our  authors,  but  simply  to  discover  the  position  of  each  in 
our  general  literary  history.  Finally,  the  scope  of  the  essay 
does  not  permit  mention  of  living  authors,  but  the  attentive 
reader  will  readily  perceive  where  notices  of  their  works  might 
be  inserted. 

CAMBRIDGE,  November,  1890. 


SKETCH 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 

i. 

As  we  begin  our  study  of  American  Literature  we 
meet  a  mass  of  writing  difficult  to  classify,  claimable  by 
both  Englishmen  and  Americans,  consisting  chiefly  of 
narratives  and  descriptions  of  the  natives  and  products 
of  the  New  World ;  often  enlivened  by  passages  invit 
ing  emigration  thither,  or  refuting  and  denouncing  cer 
tain  slanderous  reports  then  current  concerning  the 
country.  Such  are  the  accounts  of  Virginia  and  New 
England  by  Captain  John  Smith ;  Alexander  Whitaker's 
"  Good  News  from  Virginia  "  ;  William  Wood's  "  New 
England's  Prospect " ;  John  Hammond's  "  Leah  and 
Rachel "  ;  George  Alsop's  "  Character  of  the  Province 
of  Maryland  "  ;  Thomas  Ashe's  "  Carolina  "  ;  and  many 
others. 

Before  placing  these  works  at  the  head  of  American 
literature  we  should  subject  them  to  a  rigorous  scrutiny. 
It  is  clear  that  the  mere  place  of  composition  cannot 
determine  where  a  book  belongs,  else  we  should  have 
to  yield  Irving's  "  Sketch  Book  "  to  English  literature. 
Nor  can  the  subject  decide  our  classification ;  else  we 

i 


2  SKETCH    OF    THE 

must  resign  "  Bracebridge  Hall,"  taking  in  exchange 
Miss  Martineau's  work  on  American  society,  and  Pro 
fessor  Bryce's  "American  Commonwealth."  Indeed,  if 
the  subject  is  all  in  all,  we  might  maintain  that  our  lit 
erature  began  in  the  year  1584  —  when  Arthur  Barlow 
wrote  his  pleasing  account  of  Carolina  for  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  The  accidents  of  place  and  subject  evidently 
cannot  decide  the  point ;  we  must  have  recourse  to  the 
character  of  the  writer.  Did  he  live  in  England  or 
America  ?  If  England  was  his  home,  no  matter  how 
far  he  travelled ;  if  he  wrote  exclusively  for  English 
men,  no  matter  what  his  topic ;  there  can  be  no  ques 
tion  as  to  where  his  work  belongs.  The  writings  named 
above,  therefore,  must  be  classed  as  English  books 
about  America ;  not  as  literature,  for  no  one  would 
include  Hakluyt's  collection  in  a  course  that  dealt  with 
Shakespeare,  Bacon,  Milton,  and  their  great  contempo 
raries.  Yet  because  those  colonial  narratives  have 
always  been  of  peculiar  interest  to  Americans,  and  have 
been  much  read  by  them,  we  may  put  forth  a  certain 
claim  to  them ;  not  permitting  our  antiquarian  zeal  to 
attribute  to  them  a  literary  value  they  do  not  possess. 
The  highest  praise  we  can  give  them  (and  this  is  due 
especially  to  Wood's  "New  England's  Prospect  ")  is  that 
they  contain  a  few  echoes  of  the  sonorous  prose  of  the 
Elizabethan  age. 

A  remarkable  fact  now  demands  explanation.  Why 
was  there  such  absolute  dearth  of  native  authorship  in 
the  colonies  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  during  the  first 
century  of  their  existence  ?  This  dearth  cannot  be  ex 
plained  by  the  difficulties  and  dangers  generally  incident 
to  colonization  ;  its  cause  must  be  sought  in  the  char- 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  3 

acter  of  the  colonists  themselves.  This  is  significantly 
revealed  by  the  incitements  to  emigration  penned  by 
Smith,  Alsop,  and  others.  Desire  of  gain  was  the  mag 
net  that  drew  the  first  settlers  to  those  shores,  —  a  de 
sire  artfully  appealed  to  by  Captain  Smith  in  his  allu 
sions  to  pearls  found  in  mussels,  and  "rocks  interlaced 
with  many  veins  of  glistering  spangles."  He  knows 
well,  he  says,  that  nothing  but  the  hope  of  gain  can  ever 
attract  settlers  to  the  coast  of  New  England.  Alsop, 
in  his  fanciful  and  flattering  style,  abounding  in  inde 
cent  allusions,  would  entice  men  to  Maryland  by  the 
promise  of  a  fortune,  or  by  far  more  corrupt  and  degrad 
ing  suggestions ;  women  he  would  allure  by  promise  of 
immediate  marriage. 

Such  being  the  inducements  to  emigrate,  what  won 
der  is  it  that  Sir  Josiah  Child  called  the  settlers  of  Vir 
ginia  "vagrants,  vicious  and  debauched,  gathered  up  in 
the  streets  of  London  and  other  towns  "  ?  Even  John 
Hammond,  writing  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  in  defence  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  complains 
of  the  sloth  and  carelessness  of  their  inhabitants,  and 
admits  the  truth  of  the  charge  that  they  were  once  a 
"nest  of  rogues  and  dissolute  persons,"  while  he  asserts 
the  superior  quality  of  later  emigration  thither.  The 
author  of  "Virginia's  Cure"  (a  pamphlet  addressed  to 
Archbishop  Sheldon)  complains  of  the  general  lack  of 
schools,  and  says  that  out  of  fifty  parishes  scarcely  one- 
fifth  enjoy  regular  ministrations,  and  he  laments  the 
poor  attendance  of  the  people  upon  the  services  :  "they 
attend  once  a  week,  sometimes  not  at  all —  on  account  of 
heat  in  summer,  cold  in  winter,"  etc.  The  "cure"  can 
only  be,  he  says,  by  "reducing  her  planters  into  towns." 


4  SKETCH    OF    THE 

When  we  reflect  upon  the  anarchy  of  those  early 
years,  necessitating  the  proclamation  of  martial  law  ;  the 
insurrections  and  revolutions  (especially  in  Maryland)  ; 
the  terrible  want,  the  starvation  leading  even  to  canni 
balism  ;  the  strain  of  convict  blood  in  the  population, 
and  the  idleness  (fostered  by  slavery),  the  ignorance  and 
irreligion  of  the  inhabitants  ;  the  centrifugal  force  in 
settlement,  owing  to  lavish  grants  of  land,  and  the  cul 
ture  of  tobacco ;  we  see  clearly  that  all  incentives  to  lit 
erature,  and  the  will  and  ability  to  write,  were  utterly 
lacking  in  the  southern  colonies,  during  the  first  period. 

V 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE. 


II. 


IN  sharpest  contrast  to  this  state  of  things,  in  every 
particular,  do  we  find  the  history  of  the  Puritan  settlers 
of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Much  has  been 
made  of  the  two  or  three  degrees  of  latitude  separating 
Virginia  and  Maryland  from  New  England.  It  may  be 
that  the  climate  has  stamped  our  northern  literature  and 
art  with  a  certain  autumnal  melancholy,  but  it  cannot 
account  for  their  origin.  Let  us  rather  consider  the  all- 
important  point, — the  Puritan  spirit. 

We  institute  no  invidious  comparison,  but  state  a 
simple  truth,  when  we  affirm  that  the  Puritans  lived  on 
a  higher  plane,  totally  different  from  that  of  the  Virgin 
ians.  The  former  were  heirs  of  the  Reformation,  as 
the  latter  were  not.  The  Puritans  had  entered  upon  a 
stage  of  reflection,  of  enfranchisement  of  the  individual 
and  overmastering  dread  of  anything  that  might  again 
enslave  the  spirit,  or  corrupt  its  hardly  won  liberty, 
whether  it  were  monarchy,  the  hierarchy,  sensuous  art, 
or  sensual  nature.  With  this  fear  was  mingled  a  sad 
dening  sense  of  shortcoming,  and  finally  a  mute  regret 
at  the  failure  of  a  great  ideal.  This  is  the  key  to 
their  history  ;  their  resolute  determination  to  surmount 
nature ;  their  self-righteousness,  and  conceit  of  God's 
peculiar  favor,  leading  to  amazing  credulity ;  theirLsense 
of  the  responsibility  of  each  for  all,  resulting  in  ruth 
less  inquisitiveness,  painful  confessions  and  torments  of 
conscience ;  the  frightful  publicity  they  gave  to  secret 


6  SKETCH    OF    THE 

sins ;  the  revolting  examination  of  the  bodies  of  those 
accused  of  witchcraft ;  their  remorseful  introspection, 
and  despondency  declining  into  mania. 
v  The  best  literary  production  of  the  Puritan  Age  in 
New  England  is  the  first,  —  William  Bradford's  "  His 
tory  of  Plymouth  Plantation," — the  corner-stone  of 
American  literature.  Here  is  a  work  written  by  an 
American  for  Americans  and  always  exerting  a  power 
ful  influence  upon  them  ;  a  work  inspired  by  a  high  pur 
pose  ;  of  lofty  moral  tone ;  exhibiting  great  patience 
under  much  suffering,  Christian  forgiveness,  mutual 
helpfulness,  and  unlooked-for  tolerance.  It  has,  too, 
a  literary  charm  of  which  Winthrop's  "  Journal "  is 
utterly  devoid.  Bradford  reveals  the  brighter  side  of 
Puritanism ;  Winthrop,  the  darker.  Winthrop  is  im 
placable  ;  would  have  no  correspondence  with  the  ban 
ished  Coddington,  and  is  ever  seeking  instances  of 
divine  judgment  upon  revilers  of  the  Puritans  :  he  is 
morbid;  monstrous  births,  confessions  of  sin,  and  the 
like  (which  Bradford  would  merely  mention  and  pass  by 
as  too  terrible  to  dwell  upon)  exert  over  Winthrop's 
mind  a  baleful  fascination  ;  he  gives  details  with  nause 
ating  minuteness,  and  finds  a  dreary  satisfaction  in 
chronicling  these  manifest  judgments  of  God  upon 
sinners. 

History  and  biography  are,  of  course,  characteristic 
products  of  a  people  who  believed  profoundly  in  God's 
guidance  of  individuals  and  states.  The  Autobiography 
of  Thomas  Shepard  —  one  of  the  most  eminent  men  of 
that  age  —  is  an  interesting  and  valuable  little  book. 

The  department  of  literature  in  which  the  Puritans 
took  the  most  passionate  interest,  but  in  which,  for  ob- 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  7 

vious  reasons,  they  have  left  little  of  perennial  worth, 
was  theology  and  anthropology.  Above  and  apart  from 
the  interminable  and  unreadable  controversies  of  Cotton 
and  Williams,  above  his  own  sermons  —  grouped  under 
the  titles  of  "The  Soul's  Humiliation — Implantation  — 
Exaltation "  —  stands  out  a  short  work  by  Thomas 
Hooker  (the  courageous  and  great-souled  founder  of 
Hartford),  called  "The  Poor  Doubting  Christian  drawn 
to  Christ."  It  is  a  treatise  important  for  the  light  it 
throws  upon  the  spiritual  agonies  of  that  age,  and  it 
merits  study  nowadays  as  an  answer  to  one  of  the  most 
difficult  problems  in  pastoral  care.  "  We  must  not  look 
too  long,"  says  Hooker,  "  nor  pore  too  much  or  unwar 
rantably  upon  our  own  corruptions  within  :  such  a 
course  is  a  sinful  course."  Through  every  chapter  shines 
forth  the  author's  buoyant  and  indomitable  nature,  terri 
ble  and  threatening  to  bold  sinners,  exquisitely  tender 
and  encouraging  to  the  penitent.  Here  and  there  are 
fervent  exclamations  in  the  rapt  spirit  of  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi :  "  In  a  holy  humility  labor  to  contend  with  God, 
and  by  a  strong  hand  overcome  the  Lord ;  for  the  Lord 
loves  to  be  overcome  thus."  This  wholesome  teaching 
was  balm  to  many  a  sick  soul ;  the  book  was  in  con 
stant  demand  and  passed  through  seven  editions  within 
a  century. 

The  years  included  by  the  publication  of  Nathaniel 
Ward's  "  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam,"  and  of  Michael 
Wigglesworth's  "Day  of  Doom,"  make  up  the  darkest 
indiction  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts  ;  a  period 
marked  by  the  supremacy  of  Endicott  and  Norton,  — 
by  the  adoption  of  the  Cambridge  Platform,  the  hanging 
of  the  first  witch,  the  banishment  of  Henry  Dunster, 


8  SKETCH    OF    THE 

and  the  persecution  of  the  Quakers ;  fitly  ushered  in  by 
Ward's  grotesque  production,  a  diatribe  against  religious 
toleration,  women  of  fashion  and  their  .dress,  the  Irish 
people,  etc.  An  "  Interpendent "  himself,  Ward  would 
gladly  exterminate  all  who  do  not  agree  with  him.  His 
ludicrously  venomous  spirit,  his  senile  grumbling,  argue 
for  universal  toleration  more  powerfully  than  he  could 
ever  have  foreseen.  John  Norton  was  for  several  years 
his  assistant  at  Ipswich. 

In  the  year  1650  Anne  Bradstreet's  poems  were  pub 
lished  — "  curious  works,  trimmed  with  quaint  expres 
sions."  Her  inspiring  subjects  are  the  Four  Humors 
("  choler,  blood,  melancholy,  flegme "),  the  Four  Ele 
ments,  the  Four  Ages  of  Man,  the  Four  Seasons  of  the 
Year,  and  the  Four  Monarchies. 

"  What  gripes  of  wind  my  infancy  did  pain, 
What  tortures  I  in  breeding  teeth  sustain  !  " 

sings  the  First  Age  of  Man. 

"  The  cramp  and  gout  doth  sadly  torture  me, 
And  the  restraining,  lame  Sciatica, 
The  Astma,  Megrim,  Palsy,  Lethargy, 
The  quartan  Ague,  Dropsy,  Lunacy,"  — 

says  the  afflicted  Third  Age. 

The  Four  Seasons  begin  each  with  a  little  astronomy. 
In  vain  we  look  for  a  single  truthful  touch  ;  everything 
is  tasteless  and  conventional.  In  spring,  "  the  primrose 
and  violet  deck  the  earth  like  lace" ;  in  September 

"  The  orange  —  lemon  dangle  on  the  tree ; 
The  pomegranate,  the  fig,  are  ripe  also." 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  9 

Resolutely  the  "poem"  lumbers  on,  —  it  must  finish 
its  stint.  In  November,  we  are  told  :  — 

"  Beef,  Brawn,  and  Pork  are  now  in  great  request, 
And  solid  meats  our  stomacks  can  digest." 

In  finer  vein  is  a  short  piece  called  "  Contemplations," 
which  really  possesses  a  certain  sweetness  and  natural 
ness,  though  disfigured  by  such  classical  allusions  as 
"Neptune's  glassy  hall";  "Thetis'  house"  (to  which 
the  Merrimac  glides). 

An  extraordinary  work,  by  reason  of  its  subject,  and 
terribly  literal  treatment,  the  ballad  measure  in  which 
it  is  composed,  and  its  wide  and  long-lasting  influence, 
is  Wigglesworth's  "Day  of  Doom."  No  one  who  has 
not  read  this  diabolical  poem  can  thoroughly  understand 
the  Puritan  spirit.  Its  metre  is  that  of  the  Old  Bay 
Psalm-book  :  — 

"  They  have  their  wish  whose  souls  perish 
With  torments  in  hell-fire." 

"  If  for  our  own  transgression 

Or  disobedience 
Divine  justice  offended  is,"  etc. 

(Note  the  leonine  rhymes.) 

The  souls  of  all  men  are  represented  as  passing  be 
fore  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ.  They  are  grouped 
into  eleven  classes,  —  the  heathen,  young  men,  babes, 
etc.  The  lost  souls  (who  are,  of  course,  vastly  in  the 
majority)  argue  their  case  with  Christ ;  but  he  "readily 
replies,"  refutes  their  arguments,  and  puts  them  to 
silence. 

"  Unto  the  saints,  with  sad  complaints, 
Should  they  themselves  apply, 


IO  SKETCH    OF    THE 

They're  not  dejected,  nor  aught  affected 

With  all  their  misery  .  .  . 
Now  such  compassion  is  out  of  fashion 

And  wholly  laid  aside." 

The  grim  determination  to  transcend  all  natural  feel 
ing  has  never  found  more  dreadful  expression  than  here : 

"The  pious  father  had  now  much  rather 

His  graceless  son  should  lie 
In  hell  with  devils,  for  all  his  evils 
Burning  eternally." 

The  pessimism  of  the  nineteenth  century  seems  puny 
and  insincere  when  compared  with  the  ferocity  of  Wig- 
glesworth.  And  yet  he  was  (like  Leopardi)  a  "little, 
feeble  shadow  of  a  man,"  says  Cotton  Mather.  He 
loathed  his  "vile  body,  subject  to  decay."  He  wrote  a 
"  Song  of  Emptiness  "  and  a  "  Farewell  to  the  World." 
Yet  listen  to  the  last  words  of  this  singular  being,  faintly 
murmured  on  his  death-bed  :  "  For  more  than  fifty  years 
I  have  been  laboring  to  uphold  a  life  of  communion  with 
God." 

Passing  rapidly  over  the  writings  of  the  time  of  King 
Philip's  War,  especially  commending  Benjamin  Tomp- 
son's  "New  England's  Crisis"  and  Mrs.  Rowlandson's 
"  Narrative  of  her  Captivity,"  we  come  to  Cotton  Mather, 
in  whom  the  Puritan  age  culminated  and  came  to  an 
end.  It  was  left  for  him  to  write  the  lives  of  the  foun 
ders  of  New  England,  and  to  gather  them,  with  vast 
stores  of  information,  anecdotes,  legends,  etc.,  into  one 
encyclopaedic  work,  the  "  Magnalia  Christi  Americana." 
Such  a  work  generally  marks  the  close  of  an  epoch.  It 
is  interesting  to  mark  the  mediasvalism  of  Mather's 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  I  I 

character, — his  ascetism,  his  fasts  and  vigils,  his  minute 
observances,  his  doctrine  of  reserve  ("  I  have  concealed 
several  memorable  things,"  he  says  in  his  account  of 
Margaret  Rule's  sufferings),  his  encouragement  of  con 
fession  ("  I  have  recommended  them  to  tell  their  minds 
to  some  person  of  discretion  "),  his  vast  erudition  (his 
style,  like  Burton's,  bristling  with  quotations),  his  lack 
of  originality,  his  prolixity,  and  intolerable  tediousness. 
The  sixth  book  of  the  "  Magnalia  "  (entitled  "Thauma- 
turgus  ")  is  readable  and  highly  amusing ;  the  "  Boni- 
facius  "  —a  carefully  elaborated  "Essay  to  Do  Good" 
—  is  a  fair  example  of  his  style ;  his  monstrous  verbal 
coinages,  his  fondness  for  alliteration  and  quotation,  his 
frequent  digressions  and  difficulty  in  coming  to  the  point, 
his  quaint  illustrations  and  fervent  ejaculations.  This 
essay  contains  much  wise  advice  concerning  the  rela 
tions  of  life,  conjugal,  parental,  etc.  It  is  interesting 
to  find  in  this  old  book  directions  to  masters  as  to  the 
treatment  of  their  slaves,  and  a  reference  to  the  slave- 
trade  as  a  "  spectacle  that  shocks  humanity."  "Boni- 
facius  "  was  not  published,  however,  until  ten  years  after 
Sewall's  famous  tract  appeared.  We  take  leave  of 
Mather  in  Colman's  words  :  "  He  was  the  first  minister 
in  the  town,  the  first  in  the  whole  province  of  New  Eng 
land  for  universal  literature  and  extensive  services.  In 
conversation  he  excelled,  he  shone.  Of  Death  and  Eter 
nity  he  was  ever  speaking  with  pleasure  and  desire." 

Having  now  passed  in  review  a  series  of  works  that 
illustrate  the  Puritan  character  at  different  periods  of 
its  history  ;  having  in  their  pages  become  familiar  with 
its  struggles,  first  with  the  wilderness  and  the  savages, 
then  with  the  powers  of  darkness  ;  having  looked  into 


12  SKETCH    OF    THE 

its  heart  and  watched  the  conflict  ever  raging  there ;  let 
us  endeavor,  as  briefly  as  we  may,  to  gain  a  conception 
of  that  character  clearer  and  fuller  than  before.  And 
first  of  all  we  notice,  as  a  cardinal  principle,  a  sense  of 
God's  dread  sovereignty  which  made  the  Puritan  reject 
all  earthly  kingship,  making  him  an  uncompromising 
democrat,  and  in  matters  ecclesiastical  an  independent. 
The  guide  he  needed  to  save  him  from  the  excesses  of 
Antinomianism,  and  to  point  out  the  will  of  God  he  so 
eagerly  desired  to  know  and  obey,  he  found  in  the  Old 
Testament,  expressed  in  terms  more  explicit  than  in  the 
New,  and  more  susceptible  of  literal  obedience.  He 
loved  to  think  of  himself  as  one  of  the  Chosen  People, 
and  to  trace  in  the  books  "Exodus  "  and  "Judges"  a  i 
analogy  to  his  departure  from  the  Old  World  and  con 
tests  with  the  heathen  in  the  New.  He  idolized  the 
Bible,  as  the  last  will  and  testament  of  a  departed  deity. 
With  the  awful  menace  of  the  Apocalypse  ringing  in 
his  ears,  he  dared  not  add  to  the  plain  sense  of  Scrip 
ture,  or  subtract  from  it.  Hence  his  suspicion  and 
hatred  of  "new  light."  The  principles  of  the  Antino- 
mians  and  Quakers  undermined  his  profoundest  con 
victions. 

Herein  is  the  key  to  his  conception  of  nature.  It  was 
decidedly  Manichaean.  To  the  Puritans,  God  was  very 
far  off.  Wigglesworth  speaks  of  America  as  a  den  of 
devils,  "a  howling  wilderness,  with  hellish  fiends  and 
brutish  men,  in  darkness  and  the  shadow.,  of  death  and 
eternal  night."  Robert  Calef  declares  that  the  Mathers, 
by  their  theory  that  "  the  devil  has  power  of  tempests, 
diseases,"  etc.,  make  him  out  to  be  the  governer  of  the 
world.  Bradford  says  that  some  believed  that  Satan 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  13 

had  more  power  in  heathen  lands  than  in  Christian. 
Sewall  expresses  a  dread  of  Satan's  anger.  Degrading 
imaginations,  pruriency,  and  puerile  superstitions  re 
sulted  from  this.  The  diseased  mind  of  the  Puritan 
found  signs  and  wonders  in  changes  of  the  weather. 
In  such  an  atmosphere,  of  course,  science  could  not 
exist.  What  passes  for  such  is  marked  by  superstition, 
an  expectation  of  meeting  monsters,  and  an  acceptance 
of  fancies  for  facts  upon  the  authority  of  the  ancients. 
"We  sailed  by  an  Island  of  Ice,"  says  Josselyn,  "with 
Bays  and  Capes  like  high  clift  land,  and  a  River  pour 
ing  off  it  into  the  Sea.  We  saw  likewise  two  or  three 
Foxes,  or  Devils,  skipping  upon  it."  Josselyn  was  told 
of  "  a  Sea-Serpent  or  Snake  that  lay  quoiled  up  like  a 
Cable  upon  a  Rock  at  Cape  Ann."  "As  to  Mermaids," 
says  he,  "consult  Pliny,  Albertus  Magnus,"  etc.,  etc. 
"  Some  being  lost  in  the  woods  have  heard  such  terrible 
roarings  as  have  made  them  much  aghast  —  which  must 
either  be  Devils  or  Lions,"  says  William  Wood.  For 
the  rest,  this  "science"  consists  of  catalogues  of  herbs 
and  trees,  insects,  reptiles,  fishes,  birds,  and  beasts,  with 
their  uses.  The  Puritans  were,  naturally  enough,  utili 
tarians.  "The  appearance  of  land  [Cape  Cod]  much 
comforted  us  —  so  goodly  a  land  and  wooded  to  the 
brink  of  the  sea."  .  .  .  "A  good  harbor  and  pleasant 
bay  wherein  a  thousand  sail  of  ships  may  safely  ride." 
.  .  .  "We  saw  whales,  which,  had  we  instruments  to> 
take  them,  might  have  made  a  rich  return  —  which  to 
our  great  grief  we  wanted."  These  views  of  nature 
have,  of  course,  a  profound  influence  upon  literature 
and  art.  In  Puritan  literature  nature  is  treated  either 
with  contempt  or  with  insincerity  (as  mere  ornament). 


14  SKETCH    OF    THE 

Anne  Bradstreet  calls  the  primrose,  daisy,  and  violet 
"cold,  mean  flowers"  ;  and  Samuel  Wigglesworth  writes 
of  the  "verdant  grove,"  the  "flowery  bank  and  silver 
streams"  (rhyming  with  "enameled  greens"). 

The  Puritan  abhorrence  of  art  can  be  partly  accounted 
for  by  association  ;  their  arch-enemy,  Laud,  was  conspic 
uous  as  a  restorer  and  beautifier  of  churches.  Italy, 
Spain,  and  Flanders  —  the  sources  of  art  —  were  Romish 
countries  ;  and  in  the  Puritan  mind  idolatry  and  the  arts 
were  inseparably  connected.  Shirley,  King  Charles's 
favorite  dramatist,  and  several  lyric  poets  became  Ro 
manists.  Moreover,  the  lives  of  Lope  da  Vega,  Cara- 
vaggio,  and  Guido  Reni  were  by  no  means  edifying ; 
and  the  arts  of  sculpture  and  painting  were  steadily 
declining  in  the  hands  of  Bernini,  the  Caracci,  and 
Guercino.  George  Herbert  speaks  with  disgust  and 
despondency  of  the  vices  of  Italy,  and  the  contamination 
of  England,  and  prophesies  the  flight  of  true  religion  to 
America.  Bradford  mentions  the  "  Italian  manner  "  as 
if  it  were  a  synonym  for  corruption.  During  their 
sojourn  in  Holland,  the  Pilgrims  must  often  have  been 
shocked  by  the  fleshliness  of  Rubens  and  the  frivolity 
of  Jordaens.  But  after  all,  Hooker's  "Doubting  Chris 
tian  "  offers  the  most  satisfactory  solution  of  the  prob 
lem.  A  frame  of  mind  so  piteously  introspective  and 
self-involved  utterly  incapacitates  for  artistic  production. 
As  a  matter  of  principle,  too,  the  Puritans  objected  to 
the  "overcostly  building  and  adorning  of  temples,"  to 
"effeminate  music,  stage-plays,  mixt  dancing,  amorous 
pastorals,  face-painting,  love-locks,  luxurious  Christmas- 
keeping,  New-year's  gifts,  May-games,  and  such  like 
vanities  —  mere  sinful,  wicked,  unchristian  pastimes, 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  15 

cultures,  and  disguises."  To  worship  God  in  a  molten 
or  graven  image  was  to  be  punished  by  death,  according 
to  Cotton's  laws  of  the  year  1641  ;  and  "the  very  art 
of  making  pictures  and  images  is  an  occasion  of  idol 
atry."  So  the  spirit  of  Puritanism  expressed  itself  in 
their  architecture  —  square  meeting-houses  with  hipped 
roofs  and  belfries  ;  their  sculpture  —  gravestones  with 
winged  death's-heads  in  low  relief;  their  poetry  —  epi 
taphs  and  elegies  ;  their  decoration  —  whitewash  ;  their 
music  —  the  "lining  out"  of  psalms. 

The  Puritans  quoted  freely  from  Greek  and  Roman 
authors,  yet  despised  them  as  heathen.  "  We  are  wiser 
than  they,"  said  Winthrop.  "  Purge  the  schools  of  Homer 
and  such  books,"  said  Mather.  As  naked  heathen  the 
Indians  impressed  and  shocked  them ;  they  saw  no 
beauty  in  the  graceful  and  athletic  forms  of  the  red- 
men.  "These  poor  naked  men"  appeared  to  Shepard 
"the  saddest  spectacle  of  degeneracy."  "Disobedience 
and  the  counsel  of  the  devil  have  made  men  so."  Yet 
now  and  then  some  one  would  be  captivated  by  the 
wild,  free  life  of  the  forest,  and  be  lost  for  a  while  to 
obedience  and  propriety ;  as  was  the  case  with  a  certain 
Ashley  of  whom  Bradford  tells.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  Sachems  were  once  induced  "  to  wear  their  hair 
comely,  as  the  English  do."  Rarely  do  we  find  even 
such  qualified  praise  as  in  this  sentence  of  William 
Wood's :  "  They  are  more  amiable  to  behold  (though 
only  in  Adam's  livery)  than  many  a  compounded  fan 
tastic  in  the  newest  fashion." 

As  regards  the  sectaries  with  whom  they  came  in 
contact,  the  Puritans  seem  to  have  been  incapable  of 
distinguishing  between  human  beings  and  doctrines,  — 


I\ 


l6  SKETCH    OF    THE 

of  pitying  and  bearing  with  the  thinker  while  condemn 
ing  his  opinions.  It  should  be  said,  however,  in  exten 
uation  of  their  conduct,  that  in  that  outspoken  age 
singular  opinions  commonly  led  to  libel  and  breach  of 
the  peace,  and  that  the  union  of  church  and  state  in 
their  system  of  government  caused  schism  to  be  con 
founded  with  treason. 

Another  remarkable  characteristic  was  a  perception 
of  the  responsibility  of  each  for  all  that  riveted  the 
social  order,  and  impressed  upon  it  that  centripetal 
tendency  which  has  had  deep  and  far-reaching  results 
throughout  American  history.  Bradford,  among  the 
entries  in  his  history  for  the  year  1632,  tells  of  the 
reluctant  separation  of  the  church  at  Duxbury  from  that 
of  Plymouth,  and  shows  how  the  people  at  Plymouth 
tried  to  retain  the  emigrants  to  Green  Harbor  in  their 
religious  assembly.  This  separation,  he  says,  "  I  fear 
will  be  the  ruin  of  New  England."  The  Puritans 
always  remembered  that  "Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?" 
was  the  question  of  Cain.  The  consequences  of  this 
feeling  were  often  ludicrous  or  disgusting,  or  almost 
incomprehensible  to  us  at  the  present  day ;  as,  for  ex 
ample,  the  publicity  given  to  offences  against  nature  ; 
the  minute  supervision  of  families  by  magistrate  and 
pastor ;  the  public  prayers,  carefully  adapted  to  the 
state  of  the  persons  prayed  for ;  the  "  covenanting  to 
watch  over  one  another,  in  coming  into  the  church  "  ; 
the  public  confessions,  and  detailed  accounts  of  relig 
ious  experience  and  conversion.  "Much  is  right,"  says 
Plato,  "which  it  is  not  right  to'talk  about."  One  of  the 
glaring  evils  of  this  tyrannous  surveillance  was  "  mental 
reservation  "  and  hypocrisy.  A  significant  remark  is 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  I/ 

that  of  Francis  Higginson,  to  the  effect  that  Henry 
Dunster  might  have  kept  the  presidency  of  Harvard 
College  if  he  had  been  shrewd  enough  to  conceal  his 
heterodox  opinions. 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  fathers  of  New  England  for 
education  is  easily  understood.  They  founded  schools 
and  a  college,  because  education  is  the  development  of 
the  individual,  and  this  they  regarded  as  their  duty. 
Nor  did  they  fear  knowledge,  for  it  was  through  that 
that  they  had  attained  their  freedom ;  and  they  believed 
that  if  only  the  world  were  sufficiently  well  instructed, 
it  would  agree  with  them. 

The  learning  of  the  Puritan  age,  like  that  of  the 
schoolmen,  was  vast  and  unassimilated.  It  was  charac 
terized  by  lack  of  literary  discrimination,  by  a  Boethius- 
like  mingling  of  verse  and  prose,  by  uncouthness  and 
formlessness.  Cotton  wrote  against  set  forms  of  prayer. 
"The  attempt  to  substitute  formlessness  for  form,"  wrote 
Lanier,  "is  simply  to  substitute  bad  form  for  beautiful." 
From  this  point  of  view  our  literature  is  the  history  of 
.  progress  toward  more  and  more  beautiful  forms. 

The  Old  Bay  Psalm-Book  stands  as  a  proof  of  the 
important  fact  that  the  Puritans  possessed  neither  imag 
ination  nor  humor.  If  further  proof  is  wanted,  read 
Woodbridge's  Elegy  on  Cotton,  or  the  following  lines 
from  an  elegy  on  Alice  Bradford  :% — 

"  She  now  with  holy  Abram  hath  attained 
A  good  old  age.     Her  life  was  never  stained 
With  any  sin  that  any  one  could  call 
Remarkable,  notorious,  capital." 

We  grant  them  the  possession  of  fancy,  abundant  and 
ill-regulated,  tending  always  downward  into  mere  in- 


1 8  SKETCH    OF    THE 

genuity.  They  had  a  passion  for  anagrams.  Thus 
Richard  Mather  was  welcomed  to  Boston  as  "a  third 
charmer,"  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  looked  up  to  by  her 
disciples  as  "  the  non-such,"  and  every  one  wondered 
when  Mrs.  Bradstreet  was  found  to  be  "  deer,  neat  An 
Bartas."  The  Puritans  were  fanciful  and  ingenious ; 
wonder  and  horror  they  knew,  but  not  imagination ; 
they  were  sardonic,  not  humorous. 

We  hasten  to  bring  to  a  close  our  notice  of  the  litera 
ture  of  the  first  age. 

Conditions  in  the  colony  of  New  York  were  for  sev 
eral  generations  unfavorable  to  the  cause  of  literature. 
Shortly  after  the  appropriation  of  New  Amsterdam  by 
the  English,  a  pleasant  little  book,  "A  Brief  Descrip 
tion  of  the  Colony,"  was  published  by  Daniel  Denton 
(the  son  ot  a  Connecticut  clergyman),  who  had  removed 
to  New  Amsterdam  many  years  before.  It  is  doubly 
interesting,  as  being  the  work  of  the  first  among  many 
New  Englanders  who  have  labored  to  promote  the  cause 
of  literature  in  New  York,  and  as  supplying  to  our  early 
literature  that  gayety  and  sensuousness  which  otherwise 
it  would  sadly  lack.  The  description  of  the  strawberry 
festival  and  that  of  the  marriages  and  carousals  of  the 
Indians  are  quite  in  Irving's  vein. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  Gabriel 
Thomas,  a  Quaker,  brought  out  a  brief  but  somewhat 
ambitious  account  of  Pennsylvania  and  West  New  Jer 
sey.  This  seems  to  be  one  of  those  books  that  occupy 
debatable  ground,  —  neither  wholly  English  nor  wholly 
American.  Thomas  gives  interesting  information  con 
cerning  George  Keith,  the  agitator.  He  writes  persua 
sively  of  West  Jersey  for  "encouragement  to  the  Idle, 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  IQ 

the  Slothful,  and  the  Vagabonds  of  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland  to  hasten  thither,  —  having  no  Plot  in  my 
Pate,  or  deep  design,  no,  not  the  least  expectation  of 
gaining  anything  by  them  that  go  thither."  He  naively 
remarks  that  "  Christian  children  born  here  are  observed 
to  be  better-natured,  milder,  more  tender-hearted  than 
those  born  in  England."  Although  the  Quaker  sus 
picion  of  human  learning  (like  the  feeling  of  the  Puri 
tans  toward  art)  exerted  a  depressing  influence  upon 
intellectual  effort,  only  dispelled  by  Franklin,  their  peace 
ful  character  has  profoundly  impressed  American  litera 
ture  and  life. 


2O  SKETCH    OF    THE 


III. 

WE  now  enter  upon  investigations  of  extraordinary 
interest,  concerning  the  principles  of  the  development 
of  our  literature  throughout  a  majestic  cycle,  beginning 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  ending  about  the 
time  of  the  second  war  with  England.  Politically  speak 
ing  this  might  be  called  the  consolidative  period.  There 
was  manifest  among  the  colonies  a  tendency  toward 
more  intimate  relations  with  the  British  crown,  and  a 
faint  at  first,  but  steadily  strengthening  tendency  toward 
union  with  each  other,  under  the  stimulus  of  foreign 
aggression,  first  of  France  and  Spain,  then,  chief  of  all, 
of  England  herself,  then  of  England  and  France  in  turn. 
Intellectually  considered  it  was  a  period  of  analysis,  of 
criticism,  of  attempt  to  distinguish  between  the  real  and 
the  apparent,  to  get  at  the  ground  of  things,  the  sub 
strate  of  all  phenomena.  Its  habits  and  methods  and 
ideals  were  in  striking  contrast  with  those  of  the  Puritan 
age.  It  looked  out  rather  than  in.  It  felt  a  new  joy 
in  existence.  It  gave  dignity  to  science,  exploring  the 
world  of  sense  and  the  world  of  mind,  investigating  their 
laws,  and  attempting  to  explain  the  principle  of  their 
connection.  Reverence  for  law  and  faith  in  its  power 
was  a  controlling  principle  of  the  age ;  hence  the  curi 
ously  external  and  formal  character  of  its  morality,  — 
the  self-imposed  resolutions,  the  codes  of  laws  regulat 
ing  every  thought,  word,  and  deed,  of  which  the  rules 
of  conduct  of  Edwards  and  Washington  are  familiar  and 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  21 

conspicuous  examples.  And  finally,  the  mind  of  man 
sported  in  its  sense  of  freedom  and  power,  planning  how 
it  might  impress  itself  upon  nature  and  society,  and 
create  for  itself  an  enjoyable  environment. 

It  is  a  pleasing  task  to  trace  the  beginnings  of  this 
interesting  revolution  of  the  mind.  The  charter  gralited 
to  Massachusetts  by  William  III.  made  liberal  move 
ments  possible  within  that  colony.  The  witchcraft  panic 
(that  paroxysm  of  declining  Puritanism)  gave  rise  to 
latitudinarianism,  disbelief  in  miracles  and  in  eternal 
punishment.  In  1699  the  liberal  Colman  was  installed 
as  pastor  of  the  Manifesto  Church,  in  Brattle  Street, 
Boston.  Another  victory  of  the  new  spirit  was  the 
appointment  of  John  Leverett  as  president  of  Harvard 
College.  A  reactionary  movement,  probably  stimulated 
by  the  Mathers,  was  checked  by  the  valiant  and  vigorous 
John  Wise  of  Ipswich,  a  writer  who  should  be  carefully 
studied  with  reference  to  this  epoch  of  transition.  In 
1709  a  Quaker  meeting-house  was  built  in  Boston. 
Meanwhile  events  were  working  a  profound  change  in 
the  political  sphere.  We  should  not  overlook  the  im 
portance  of  King  William's  War  in  bringing  about  a 
combination  of  Connecticut  and  New  York  in  the  expe 
dition  against  Montreal,  or  of  Queen  Anne's  in  uniting 
Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts  against  Quebec ;  the 
importance  of  the  increasing  strength  of  the  Leislerian 
party  in  New  York,  under  the  insolence  and  extortion 
of  Lord  Cornbury,  and  the  famous  declaration  of  the 
Assembly  in  1708,  concerning  the  grievance  of  taxation 
without  the  people's  consent.  Popular  principles  tri 
umphed  in  Carolina  in  1719.  It  is  convenient  to  re 
member  the  year  1722  as  marked  by  the  victory  of 


22  SKETCH    OF    THE 

liberalism  all  along  the  line.  The  Assembly  of  Massa 
chusetts  so  wearied  Governor  Shute  that  he  left  for 
England ;  that  of  Virginia  removed  Governor  Spots- 
wood  from  the  chair  because  he  insisted  upon  appointing 
to  vacant  benefices ;  the  Lower  House  of  Assembly  in 
Maryland  declared  that  the  people  of  that  colony  were 
entitled  "to  all  the  rights  and  immunities  of  free  Eng 
lishmen."  Jeremiah  Dummer  wrote  a  "  Defence  of  the 
New  England  Charters,"  and  Daniel  Coxe  of  New  Jersey 
proposed  a  plan  of  union  of  all  the  colonies.  In  Con 
necticut  Timothy  Cutler,  rector  of  Yale,  Samuel  John 
son,  one  of  the  tutors,  with  others,  announced  their 
adhesion  to  Episcopacy,  and  sailed  for  England  for  ordi 
nation.  In  Boston  Zabdiel  Boylston,  naturalist  and 
physician,  inoculated  for  the  small-pox  with  distinguished 
success,  and  was  defended  by  Benjamin  Colman  against 
the  attacks  of  the  bigoted  and  malicious.  In  the  same 
year  Jonathan  Edwards  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  in 
the  following  Benjamin  Franklin  escaped  to  Philadel 
phia.  From  about  this  time,  says  Howison,  the  Vir 
ginian  historian,  "the  observant  reader  of  American 
history  will  mark  a  change  in  the  feelings  of  the  colonies 
toward  each  other.  The  coalescing  movement  began 
in  New  England."  Said  Franklin,  "The  first  drudgery 
of  settling  colonies  is  over ;  now  comes  leisure  to  culti 
vate  the  finer  arts  and  improve  the  common  stock  of 
knowledge." 

A  sense  of  the  nearness  of  God,  of  his  workings  in 
nature,  and  of  the  indwelling  of  his  Spirit  in  the  human 
heart,  seems  to  have  been  the  deepest  source  of  the 
regenerative  enthusiasm  of  the  age.  "The  Spirit  of 
God  dwells  and  acts  in  the  hearts  of  the  saints  in  some 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  23 

measure  after  the  manner  of  a  vital,  natural  principle,  a 
principle  of  new  nature  in  them,"  said  Edwards.  He 
belived  that  "love  and  delight  "  were  "diffused  through 
the  universe."  Very  significant,  in  connection  with 
both  literature  and  science,  are  such  passages  as  these  : 
"  I  often  used  to  sit  and  view  the  moon  for  continuance, 
and  in  the  day  spent  much  time  in  viewing  the  clouds 
and  sky,  to  behold  the  sweet  glory  of  God  in  these 
things.  ...  I  felt  God,  so  to  speak,  at  the  first  ap 
pearance  of  a  thunder-storm,  and  used  to  take  the  op 
portunity  at  such  times  to  fix  myself  in  order  to  view 
the  clouds  and  see  the  lightnings  play,  and  hear  the 
majestic  and  awful  voice  of  God's  thunder."  The  fol 
lowing  exquisite  sentences,  reminding  us  continually  of 
Wordsworth,  are  from  Mather  Byles'  sermon  of  May  3, 
1739,  on  the  "Flourish  of  the  Annual  Spring"  :  "We 
may  live  more  in  one  day  now  than  in  many  that  are 
numbed  with  frost  and  chilled  by  the  rigor  of  the 
winter.  .  .  .  The  opening  of  the  earth  by  the  plough, 
and  the  odors  of  the  various  blossoms  scattered  from 
every  glowing  tree  around,  conspire  to  call  back  the  de 
clining  health  or  establish  the  sound  constitution.  The 
idle  musicians  of  the  spring  fill  the  fields  and  the  skies 
with  their  artless  melody.  Universal  nature  about  us 
with  one  voice  sings  Alleluia  aloud.  Glory  to  God  in 
the  highest  is  resounded  by  every  tuneful  bird,  every 
warbling  brook  and  bubbling  fountain.  Incense  to  the 
God  of  Heaven  is  offered  by  every  opening  lily  and 
glowing  blossom  which  perfume  the  air  with  their  am 
bient  sweets.  .  .  .  The  wide  earth  we  tread  on  seems 
but  one  great  altar,  covered  with  incense  and  offerings 
to  God  its  Maker."  The  sermon  concludes  with  an 


24  SKETCH    OF    THE 

"  hymn  for  the  Spring."  And  here  is  a  noble  passage 
from  a  sermon  of  Samuel  Hopkins:  "When  the  mind  is 
regenerate,  the  first  thing  that  presents  itself  is  the 
omnipresent  and  glorious  God.  Now  the  person  finds 
himself  surrounded  with  Deity,  and  sees  God  manifest 
ing  himself  everywhere  and  in  everything.  The  sun, 
moon,  and  stars ;  the  clouds,  the  mountains,  the  trees ; 
the  fields,  the  grass,  and  every  creature  conspire  in 
silent,  yet  clear,  powerful,  and  striking  language  to 
declare  to  him  the  being,  perfections,  and  glory  of  God." 

Such  an  era  should  evidently  be  the  starting-point  of 
art,  and  so  we  find  it.  Pelham  and  Smybert,  gracious 
figures  both,  found  homes  in  Boston.  Pelham  was  a 
portrait-painter  and  mezzotinter,  and  has  left  us  like 
nesses  of  Cotton  Mather,  Colman,  and  Byles.  Smybert 
came  to  our  shores  in  Berkleley's  company,  laden  with 
the  culture  of  the  Old  World,  yet  modest  and  reserved, 
a  man  of  purest  motives,  an  amiable  visionary.  He 
painted  a  picture  of  Berkeley  and  his  family  —  the  first 
group  done  in  America  —  and  has  preserved  for  us  the 
lineaments  of  Jonathan  Edwards.  He  opened  the  first 
studio  in  Boston.  His  portraits  are  delicately  pencilled 
and  of  careful  finish,  but  poorly  modelled,  flat,  and 
dim  in  light  and  color ;  their  pose  is  set,  their  flesh  tints 
ashen.  The  colors  are  very  thinly  laid  on.  Pelham  made 
engravings  from  several  of  these  portraits,  and  gave 
instruction  in  drawing  and  painting ;  among  others  to 
Copley,  his  step-son. 

A  short  poem  called  "Bachelor's  Hall,"  by  George 
Webb,  a  friend  of  Franklin's,  shows  fondness  for  nature 
and  for  music.  We  recall  immediately  Franklin's  pleas 
ure  in  the  sweet  and  melancholy  strain  of  the 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  25 

harp.  About  this  time,  singing  by  note  began  to  sup 
plant  the  old  "leading  and  lining"  in  many  New  Eng 
land  churches. 

It  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  note  the  beginnings 
of  aesthetic  inquiry  in  America.  In  this,  as  might  be 
expected,  Edwards  takes  the  lead.  He  considers  the 
nature  of  beauty  ;  is  it  harmony  and  proportion  ?  This 
does  not  satisfy  him ;  he  finds  it  in  being,  the  supreme 
good, — the  more  being,  the  more  beauty;  until  God  is 
reached,  the  infinite  being,  infinitely  beautiful.  Hop 
kins  discusses  the  subject  of  taste.  This,  he  says, 
implies  inclination  of  heart  —  the  very  idea  of  beauty 
consists  in  a  sense  of  heart.  "  The  beauty  of  holiness 
can  be  discerned  no  other  way." 

One  of  the  most  gratifying  traits  of  the  time  is  the 
new  spirit  of  tolerance,  of  justice ;  the  ability  to  distin 
guish  between  a  man  and  an  obnoxious  opinion  ;  to  treat 
the  former  with  courtesy,  while  ignoring  the  latter,  or 
opposing  it  with  humor  and  good-temper.  This  quality 
makes  Franklin's  account  of  the  odd  characters  in  his 
"  Junto  "  doubly  attractive.  Other  societies  for  mutual 
improvement  followed  the  establishment  of  the  "Junto." 
A  debating  club  was  started  in  Newport,  R.I.,  in  1730, 
from  which  sprang,  in  course  of  time,  the  Redwood 
Library. 

The  name  of  Franklin  (the  greatest  social  force  of 
that  day)  suggests  the  newspaper — another  proof  of  the 
interest  that  men  were  beginning  to  take  in  their  fellows. 
There  were  the  "Boston  News-Letter"  (founded  in 
1704),  and  "Gazette"  (1719),  and  "Courant"  (1721), 
the  "Philadelphia  Mercury"  (1719),  the  "Maryland 
Gazette"  (1727),  the  "New  York  Weekly  Journal" 


26  SKETCH    OF    THE 

(1733),  and  the  "Gazettes"  of  Virginia  (1736),  North 
Carolina  (1749),  and  Georgia  (1763),  and  many  others. 
These,  with  many  allusions  in  contemporary  writings, 
convince  us  that  the  people  were  beginning  to  concern 
themselves  in  intercolonial  and  foreign  affairs  ;  indeed, 
in  the  life  of  the  world.  And  do  not  let  us  forget  the 
life-work  among  the  Indians  of  the  devoted  Brainerd,  or 
the  labors  and  travels  of  the  single-hearted  Quaker,  John 
Woolman,  in  behalf  of  the  slaves. 

The  most  notable  figure  by  far  in  the  first  generation 
of  that  era  was  Jonathan  Edwards.  In  him  we  find  its 
character  comprehensively  summed  up.  His  sensitive 
ness  and  susceptibility  to  new  ideas ;  his  eagerness  to 
discover  the  laws  of  the  external  world,  and  of  the  phe 
nomena  of  sensation ;  his  accurate  observation  of  the 
habits  of  the  spider;  his  fondness  for  walking  in  solitary 
places  (he  used  to  go  to  the  woods  to  pray) ;  his  idealism 
(he  wrote  an  ironical  letter  ridiculing  the  materialistic 
conception  of  the  soul)  —  he  held  that  "bodies  have  no 
proper  being  of  their  own,  in  themselves  considered," 
and  that  substance  is  "  He  in  whom  all  things  consist" ; 
his  longing  for  union  with  God ;  his  moral  energy  (he 
resolved  "to  live  while  I  do  live");  his  determination 
to  be  temperate,  benevolent,  peaceable  (what  adjectives 
could  better  describe  the  character  of  Franklin  ?),  — 
all  these  are  exceedingly  interesting  and  significant. 
An  endeavor  to  distinguish  between  the  real  and  the 
merely  apparent,  the  genuine  and  the  counterfeit,  in 
religious  experience,  is  the  key  to  his  treatise  on  "  the 
Religious  Affections."  He  was  the  first  American 
whose  thought  reacted  upon  the  mother-country  ;  its 
effect  in  England  and  Scotland  has  been  deep  and  en- 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  2/ 

during.  His  "Narrative"  of  the  revival  in  Northamp 
ton,  in  1735,  contains  much  that  is  of  importance  in 
connection  with  pastoral  care.  Many  of  the  details  of 
the  extraordinary  excitement  of  that  and  following  years 
remind  one  constantly  of  the  witchcraft  delusion  ;  both 
seem  to  have  been  a  species  of  "possession"  connected 
with  that  excitability  which  has  been  remarked  as  a 
characteristic  of  the  American  people.  Edwards'  doc 
trine  of  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  the  pri 
mary  cause  of  that  "  awakening "  which  shook  the 
colonies  north  and  south,  and  gave  rise  to  numbers  of 
lay-exhorters  and  itinerant  preachers  of  Whitefield's 
stamp,  breaking  down  the  barriers  between  parishes 
and  forming  new  societies  ;  and  which  infused  into  the 
churches  a  vital  principle  that  brought  about  the  decline 
of  the  Half-way  Covenant,  and  ultimately  the  separa 
tion  of  church  and  state.  Edwards'  theory  of  history 
was  that  the  world  is  to  be  shaken  until  that  state  is 
reached  which  is  accordant  to  the  will  of  God. 

In  middle  life,  after  the  fading  of  the  beautiful  vision 
of  his  youth,  "the  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land," 
he  began  to  give  prominence  to  the  doctrine  of  total 
depravity,  wrote  denunciatory,  Wigglesworthian  ser 
mons,  denied  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and  hence  could 
not  treat  of  morals.  He  never  perceived  that  relation 
between  man  and  nature  which  is  the  ground  of  ethics 
and  the  highest  art.  His  "  Inquiry  into  the  Freedom 
of  the  Will"  is  the  consummate  triumph  of  an  age  of 
analysis,  of  the  pure  understanding.  In  the  very  year 
of  its  publication  died  Christian  Wolff,  a  philosopher 
who  suggested  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem. 

Edwards'   style,   though  adorned  sometimes  by  elo- 


28  SKETCH    OF    THE 

quent  and  beautiful  passages,  is  for  the  most  part  (like 
Smybert's  pictures)  cold,  colorless,  and  dry.  It  is, 
nevertheless,  refreshment  after  a  course  in  Puritan 
literature ;  for  it  is  original,  not  cumbered  with  quota 
tions,  and  is  clear,  pure  prose.  The  distinction  between 
verse  and  prose  begins  now  to  be  observed. 

Jonathan  Dickinson,  who  left  New  England  to  be 
come  the  pastor  of  a  church  at  Elizabethtown,  and  was 
finally  elected  President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey 
(the  first  of  a  series  of  eminent  theologians  and  preachers 
who  have  held  that  office),  has  given  proof  of  his  contro 
versial  talent  in  his  "Familiar  Letters  upon  Important 
Subjects  in  Religion."  It  is  to  be  observed  that  two 
of  these  are  excellent  arguments  upon  the  Evidences  of 
Christianity,  —  a  topic  unthought  of  and  untouched  in 
the  previous  age,  —  indicating  the  rapid  increase  of 
scepticism.  Another  is  entitled  "  True  and  False 
Faith  Distinguished,"  and  is  connected  with  the  relig 
ious  revival.  Meanwhile,  Charles  Chauncey  in  Boston 
and  Alexander  Garden  in  Charleston  were  stemming 
the  tide  of  Methodism.  Dr.  Chauncey,  in  his  acute 
and  vigorous  "  Discourse  on  Enthusiasm,"  shrewdly 
analyzes  the  character  of  the  enthusiast  (of  such  a  man, 
for  instance,  as  Davenport),  and  speaks  sharply  of  the 
rise  of  numbers  of  lay-exhorters  and  teachers,  both 
male  and  female,  "all  over  the  land."  Garden  contro 
verts  Whitefield  upon  Faith  and  Works  (again  the 
question  of  the  real  and  apparent,  genuine  and  spuri 
ous,  of  substance  and  phenomena),  insists  that  faith 
produces  works  before  justification  and  after,  that  the 
soul  of  man  co-operates  with  the  Holy  Ghost  in  regen 
eration,  asks  whether  Adam  begot  both  the  souls  and 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  2Q 

the  bodies  of  his  immediate  posterity  (thus  raising  the 
old  question  of  Traducianism),  and  defends  Archbishop 
Tillotson  against  the  accusation  that  he  had  "  only  an 
historical  faith,  not  an  effectual  belief."  Other  interest 
ing  and  unexpected  evidence  of  a  reaction  against  the 
Calvinism  of  Edwards  is  afforded  by  his  successor  in 
the  Presidency  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  Samuel 
Davies,  who  attributed  to  the  human  soul  the  power  to 
prepare  for  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Davies  went  from 
the  Middle  Colonies  to  be  for  several  years  the  pillar 
of  Presbyterianism  in  Virginia.  He  was  a  fervent  ora 
tor,  probably  the  most  eloquent  of  his  age,  except 
Whitefield  and  Wesley. 

An  important  development  of  the  time  was  an  inter 
est  in  historical  study.  Robert  Beverley's  entertaining 
"  History  of  Virginia  "  reached  a  second  edition  in  the 
year  1722  ;  Thomas  Prince  gained  a  deeper  insight  than 
any  of  his  predecessors  into  the  significance  of  Ameri 
can  history,  and  published  in  1736  the  first  part  of  his 
"Annals  "  from  the  point  of  view  of  universal  history; 
in  1738,  John  Callender  pronounced  his  "Historical 
Discourse  on  the  civil  and  religious  affairs  of  the  col 
ony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations "  ;  in 
1747,  William  Stith,  President  of  William  and  Mary's 
College,  brought  out  his  history  of  the  settlement  of 
Virginia. 

It  is  impossible  (even  if  we  wished  it)  to  include  in 
our  literature  Ebenezer  Cook's  satire  upon  the  province 
of  Maryland.  Cook  was  an  Englishman  who  went  to 
Maryland  to  fill  his  empty  purse,  if  he  could,  —  had 
several  amusing  experiences,  was  cheated  by  a  Quaker, 
and  left  the  province  in  a  rage,  with  a  foul  gibe  upon 


30  SKETCH    OF    THE 

its  inhabitants,  which  proves  that  he  was  no  "gentle 
man,"  in  spite  of  his  assumption  of  the  title.  Nor  can 
we  think  of  John  Lawson's  entertaining  and  valuable 
"Journal"  and  account  of  the  natural  history  and  the 
natives  of  Carolina  as  a  beginning  of  literature  in  that 
part  of  the  South.  Speaking  of  the  South  Carolinians, 
Lawson  says  :  "  Their  cohabiting  in  a  town  has  drawn 
to  them  ingenious  people  of  most  sciences,  whereby 
they  have  tutors  amongst  them  that  educate  their 
youth  a-la-mode.  .  .  .  Near  the  town  is  a  fair  parson 
age-house,  and  the  minister  has  a  very  considerable 
allowance  from  his  parish."  Yet  in  Charleston,  where 
in  many  points  society  resembled  that  of  New  England 
rather  than  that  of  Virginia,  we  find  no  native  litera 
ture.  A  certain  blight  seemed  to  steal  over  those 
scholars  even  who  came  from  abroad.  Ramsay  re 
marks  that  Commissary  Garden,  considered  to  be  as 
able  and  intellectual  a  man  as  there  was  in  the  colony, 
wrote  only  a  few  letters.  South  Carolina,  more  than 
any  other  colony,  was  based  upon  slavery.  Ramsay 
says  that  the  people  were  hospitable,  and  fond  of  music, 
dancing,  and  hunting  ;  were  exceedingly  sensitive  to 
criticism,  and  hence  addicted  to  fighting  duels  ;  and 
wer2  irritable,  indolent,  given  to  deep  drinking,  and 
incapable  of  long-continued  exertion. 

Hugh  Jones,  professor  of  mathematics  in  William 
and  Mary's  College,  says  that  the  Virginians  were 
generally  diverted  from  profound  study ;  were  inclined 
to  conversation  rather  than  books ;  were  fluent,  but  of 
superficial  learning.  William  Byrd,  of  Westover,  states 
that  "the  southern  colony  thought  their  being  members 
of  the  established  church  sufficient  to  sanctify  very 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  31 

loose  and  profligate  morals."  Of  Edenton,  then  capi 
tal  of  North  Carolina,  he  writes  that  there  is  "  no 
church,  chapel,  mosque,  synagogue,  or  place  of  public 
worship  of  any  sect  or  religion  whatever."  "  It  is 
natural  for  helpless  man  to  adore  his  Maker  in  some 
form  or  other,  and  were  there  any  exception  to  this 
rule,  I  should  suspect  it  to  be  among  the  Hottentots 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  of  North  Carolina." 
He  ridicules,  too,  the  excessive  indolence  of  the  people. 
Byrd  is,  without  exception,  the  brightest  and  most  truly 
literary  writer  of  the  South  during  this  period.  He 
shows  us  vividly  the  easy  and  sensuous  existence,  the 
warmth  and  sprightliness  of  thought,  of  the  Virginian 
gentleman  of  the  old  school.  Delightful  to  us,  famished 
and  frozen  by  our  sojourn  in  Puritan  New  England,  are 
his  admiration  for  nature,  for  flowers  and  shells ;  his 
fondness  for  a  bath  in  the  river ;  his  habit  of  ludicrous 
exaggeration ;  even  his  broad  humor  and  voluptuous 
ness  of  tone.  He  has  his  fling  at  "  the  saints  of  New 
England,  who  carry  off  tobacco  without  troubling  them 
selves  to  pay  that  impertinent  duty  of  a  penny  a  pound." 
He  admires  the  figures  of  the  Indians  ;  Lawson,  too, 
speaks  of  them  as  "  well-shaped,  clean-made  people,  tall 
and  straight ;  .  .  .  their  legs  and  feet  are  generally  the 
handsomest  in  the  world." 

After  the  death  of  Edwards,  Franklin  stands  forth  as 
the  greatest  American,  representing  the  practical  energy 
of  the  age,  as  the  other  did  its  theoretical  and  meta 
physical.  In  striking  contrast  with  the  idealism  and 
self-consecration  of  Edwards,  and  pleasingly  comple- 
mental  to  these,  are  Franklin's  economic  teachings 
(political,  municipal,  and  domestic) ;  his  literary  and 


32  SKETCH    OF    THE 

political  activity  (as  editor  of  newspaper  and  almanac ; 
founder  of  clubs  and  associations,  of  a  library  and  an 
academy ;  and  as  postmaster,  statesman,  and  diploma 
tist)  ;  his  philanthropic  and  scientific  efforts  (as  origi 
nator  of  a  fire-company,  and  a  society  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery ;  as  the  inventor  of  the  stove  known  by  his 
name,  and  of  the  lightning-rod ;  and  as  introducing  the 
willow-tree  into  boggy  land  in  Pennsylvania).  In  his 
religious  belief  Franklin  became  a  moderate  Unitarian. 
His  style  is  admirable,  —  perspicuous,  easy,  and  humor 
ous,  —  the  first  masterly  prose  written  in  America. 
Franklin  himself  attributed  its  best  qualities  to  a  faith 
ful  and  diligent  study  of  Addison  ;  but  his  knowledge  of 
French  must  have  had  great  influence  in  perfecting  it. 

Mather  Byles  was  the  first  sermon-writer  who  paid 
much  attention  to  prose  style.  He,  too,  acknowledges 
indebtedness  to  the  "correct,  the  delicate,  the  sublime 
Addison."  He  was  somewhat  magniloquent  and  fond 
of  adjectives.  He  was  a  famous  humorist  in  his  day, 
renowned  for  his  wars  of  wit  with  Joseph  Green ;  but 
their  parodies  of  each  other's  productions  are  tasteless 
and  tedious  nowadays. 

William  Livingston's  "  Philosophical  Solitude  "  is  per 
haps  the  most  important  poetical  performance  of  that 
generation.  It  is  written  in  the  style  of  Pope,  whom 
the  author  greatly  admired,  in  lines  almost  inevitably 
end-stopped,  with  caesura  carefully  marked,  and  with 
abundant  adjectives  ("roseate  .  .  .  amaranthine  bowers" 
—  "gloomy  yews,  spiry  firs  .  .  .  sylvan  beauties  .  .  . 
vernal  blooms  .  .  .  aromatic  sweets  .  .  .  crystal  streams 
.  .  .  embroidered  fields  "  -  the  "  rosy-bosomed  spring  " 
.  .  .  "aerial  mountains  or  subjacent  glades  ").  He  seeks 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  33 

a  wife  (a  "phoenix-woman")  with  whom  to  live  in  the 
midst  of  gardens  and  groves  and  delightful  surround 
ings.  With  these,  and  plenty  of  good  books,  he  thinks 
he  can  pass  the  time  with  philosophic  content.  His 
lines  have  frequently  a  voluptuous  tinge,  and  well  ex 
emplify  the  mediocre  aspirations  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  Other  echoes  of  John  Pomfret's  "  Choice "  are 
the  poems  of  the  same  title  by  Church,  Elijah  Fitch, 
and  Mrs.  Rowson.  Livingston  and  Church  realized 
their  ideals  at  Elizabethtown  and  Raynham. 

Livingston  was  prominent  as  a  lawyer,  and  in  1752 
issued  a  "  Digest  of  the  New  York  Colony  Laws."  The 
development  of  legal  studies  was  doubtless  fostered  by 
the  protracted  controversies  about  boundaries  that  vexed 
every  colony  during  that  generation ;  by  the  debates 
over  emissions  of  paper  money  in  many  colonies ;  and 
by  contests  with  royal  governors  over  taxation  and  sal 
aries,  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  Virginia  and 
South  Carolina,  and  with  the  proprietors  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Maryland.  The  colonial  laws  of  Rhode  Island  were 
printed  in  1719,  and  the  criminal  code  revised  in  1728. 
A  new  criminal  code  was  introduced  into  Pennsylvania 
in  1718;  and  ten  years  later  David  Lloyd  wrote  his 
"  Defence  of  the  Legislative  Constitution  of  the  Prov 
ince  of  Pennsylvania."  There,  too,  William  Bradford, 
the  printer,  struggled  for  the  liberty  of  the  press ;  and 
thence  Andrew  Hamilton,  the  most  popular  and  elo 
quent  pleader  of  his  time,  proceeded  to  New  York  to 
secure  the  acquittal  of  Peter  Zenger,  in  1735.  In  1732 
the  laws  of  England  were  introduced  into  Maryland  by 
the  Assembly ;  and  Nicholas  Trott  published  the  laws 
of  South  Carolina  in  1734.  Mention  is  made  of  several 


34  SKETCH    OF    THE 

other  prominent  lawyers  in  South  Carolina.  Gridley 
and  Ruggles  in  Massachusetts,  Sir  John  Randolph  in 
Virginia,  Charles  Carroll  in  Maryland,  were  conspicuous 
in  the  profession.  Robert  Hunter  Morris,  chief -justice 
of  New  Jersey  from  1738  to  1764,  was  "precise,  method 
ical  in  practice,  able  in  argument."  The  provincial  laws 
of  North  Carolina  were  published  in  1752.  Pennsyl 
vania  possessed  the  best  courts  in  the  colonies  ;  New 
York  perhaps  the  poorest.  In  New  York  education  was 
poor,  and  language  very  corrupt  because  of  the  numerous 
dialects  spoken  there. 

A  powerful  impetus  was,  of  course,  given  to  the  pro 
motion  of  science  by  Benjamin  Franklin ;  but  interest 
in  it  was  characteristic  of  the  age,  which  had  risen 
above  the  expectation  of  miracles  so  common  in  the 
previous  century.  Mathematics,  astronomy,  botany,  and 
medicine  were  prosecuted  with  success.  Thomas  God 
frey,  a  glazier  of  Philadelphia,  was  so  earnest  a  mathe 
matician  that  he  mastered  Latin  in  order  to  read  trea 
tises  on  the  subject  in  that  language.  He  invented 
the  reflecting  quadrant  known  as  Hadley's.  In  1727, 
Thomas  Hollis  endowed  a  professorship  of  mathematics 
and  natural  philosophy  at  Harvard  College,  which  John 
Winthrop  held  from  1738  to  1779.  In  1740,  Winthrop 
observed  the  transit  of  Mercury.  He  corresponded  with 
Franklin  upon  the  subject  of  electricity.  David  Ritten- 
house  discovered  for  himself  the  method  of  fluxions,  in 
1751.  John  Bartram,  botanist  and  physician,  laid  out 
on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill  River,  in  1728,  a  botanic 
garden,  the  first  in  America.  John  Clayton,  too,  was 
a  physician  and  enthusiastic  botanist.  Medicine  was 
studied  zealously,  because  of  frequent  and  terrible  visi- 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  35 

tations  of  small-pox  and  yellow-fever.  Inoculation  for 
the  former  was  introduced  into  Pennsylvania  in  1731. 
Dr.  John  Lining,  of  Scotland,  published  at  Charleston, 
in  1753,  a  history  of  the  yellow-fever.  He  carried  to 
Charleston  the  first  electrical  apparatus  seen  there,  and 
corresponded  with  Franklin.  Dr.  Thomas  Cadwalader 
was  the  first  to  lecture  on  anatomy  in  Philadelphia. 
Cadwallader  Colden  was  famous  as  a  mathematician, 
botanist,  and  physician.  He  introduced  the  Linnasan 
system  into  America,  and  wrote  a  "Tract  on  the  Fever." 
Testimony  as  to  the  connection  of  the  three  learned 
professions,  and  the  derivation  of  the  legal  and  medical 
from  the  theological  in  that  age,  is  given  by  John  Trum- 
bull,  in  his  "Progress  of  Dulness  "  as  follows  :  — 

"  When  each  point  of  serious  weight 
Is  born  with  wrangling  and  debate  — 
When  truth,  mid  rage  of  dire  divisions, 
Is  left  to  fight  for  definitions  — 
And  fools  assume  your  sacred  place  — 
It  threats  your  order  with  disgrace, 
Bids  genius  from  your  seats  withdraw 
And  seek  the  pert,  loquacious  law ; 
Or  deign  in  physic's  paths  to  rank 
With  every  quack  and  mountebank." 

John  Adams  in  his  youth  contemplated  the  study  of 
divinity;  Hugh  Williamson,  the  historian  of  North  Caro 
lina,  abandoned  the  Presbyterian  ministry  for  the  study 
of  medicine ;  and  these  are  but  representatives  of  a 
general  tendency. 

An  important  change  in  education  took  place  shortly 
before  the  American  Revolution.  This  was  the  adop 
tion  of  English  courses  —  in  rhetoric,  oratory,  and  study 


36  SKETCH    OF   THE 

of  style  —  into  the  curriculum  of  the  colleges.  Liber 
alism  and  English  literature  triumphed  at  Yale  in  1766. 
Trumbull,  their  champion,  was  appointed  tutor  there  in 
1771.  "The  mere  knowledge  of  ancient  languages,"  he 
wrote,  "  of  the  abstruser  parts  of  mathematics,  and  the 
dark  researches  of  metaphysics,  is  of  little  advantage 
in  any  business  or  profession  in  life.  It  would  be  more 
beneficial,  in  every  place  of  public  education,  to  take 
pains  in  teaching  the  elements  of  oratory,  the  grammar 
of  the  English  tongue,  and  the  elegancies  of  style  and 
composition."  His  "Progress  of  Dulness  "  is  studded 
with  hits  at  those  who  "gain  ancient  tongues  and  lose 
their  own,"  "  read  ancient  authors  o'er  in  vain,  nor  taste 
one  beauty  they  contain."  "  Is  there  a  spirit  found  in 
Latin,"  he  asks,  "that  must  evaporate  in  translating?" 

Nicholas  Boylston,  a  merchant  of  Boston,  left  to 
Harvard  College,  at  his  death  in  1771,  fifteen  hundred 
pounds  sterling,  to  found  a  professorship  of  rhetoric  and 
oratory. 

Freneau  wrote  in  defence  of  translations.  Dr.  Rush 
opposed  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin,  and  argued  that 
education 'should  rather  begin  with  geography  and  nat 
ural  history.  Jefferson  caused  professorships  in  divinity 
and  the  dead  languages  to  be  suppressed  at  the  college 
of  William  and  Mary,  soon  after  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  others  in  law,  science,  and  the  modern  languages 
to  be  established  instead.  In  1789  Noah  Webster  pro 
posed  his  reform  in  spelling,  and  soon  after  the  "u" 
was  generally  dropped  from  such  words  as  "labour," 
"favour,"  and  "honour,"  and  "k"  final  from  "publick," 
"musick,"  etc. 

People  trained  to  distinguish  between  the  phenomenal 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  37 

and  the  substantial  could  not  be  deceived  as  to  the  mean 
ing  of  the  acts  of  the  British  Ministry  throughout  the 
indiction  preceding  the  battles  of  Concord  and  Lexing 
ton,  —  not  even  in  such  an  insignificant  matter  as  a  paltry 
duty  on  tea.  People  accustomed  to  impose  upon  them 
selves  the  minutest  regulations  respecting  the  course 
of  their  daily  life  would  not  long  endure  the  exactions 
and  arbitrary  conduct  of  an  alien  senate  and  its  minions  ; 
people  whose  desire  it  was  to  make  the  world  pleasant 
to  live  in  would,  when  others  failed,  undertake  the  task 
themselves.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  really 
declared  that  the  colonies  were  out  of  their  nonage. 

The  writings  of  the  great  orators  and  statesmen  of 
the  Revolutionary  era  afford  abundant  material  for  a 
pleasant  and  profitable  analysis  of  fine  prose  styles. 
Generally  speaking,  we  may  say  that  these  incline  to  a 
vocabulary  of  Latin  derivation,  and  to  periodic  sentence- 
structure.  They  show  restraint  in  the  use  of  figures  of 
speech,  and  are  clear  and  forcible.  Resembling  each 
other  in  these  important  respects,  they  are  yet  distin 
guishable  by  subtle  and  interesting  peculiarities.  There 
is  Otis,  in  whose  cumbrous  sentences  and  lack  of  rhythm 
can  be  observed  the  struggle  of  great  thoughts  through 
obstructive  material ;  Quincy,  whose  use  of  short  words 
and  sentences,  whose  animation  and  imagery  and  bal 
anced  phrasing  indicate  greater  mastery  of  style;  Samuel 
Adams,  whose  clear,  vigorous,  abrupt  sentences,  abound 
ing  in  dentals,  reveal  the  dogmatic  character  of  the  man  ; 
Richard  Henry  Lee,  whose  elegance  and  lengthy  periods, 
varied  by  an  occasional  fire  of  questions,  evince  the 
classical  student ;  John  Adams,  whose  buoyant  nature 
is  impressed  upon  a  style  characterized  by  trochaic  and 


38  SKETCH    OF    THE 

dactylic  rhythm  ;  Washington,  with  balanced  sen 
tences  of  weighty,  anapaestic  tread,  indicating  ability 
to  view  a  subject  on  every  side,  slowness  in  coming  to 
a  decision,  and  immovable  determination  when  it  is 
reached ;  Jefferson,  with  somewhat  loose  sentence- 
structure,  with  phrases  and  adjectives  in  triple  groups, 
with  frequent  qualifications  of  statements,  and  expostu- 
latory  tone,  giving  an  impression  of  ambidexterity  and 
lack  of  candor ;  Jay,  whose  short  and  terse  sentences, 
straightforward  and  clear  as  crystal,  with  scanty  illus 
tration,  manifest  the  lucidity  of  his  mind  and  the 
sincerity  of  his  convictions ;  Hamilton,  with  triply 
arranged,  commensurate  clauses,  smoothly  flowing  and 
with  closing  cadences,  with  sentences  often  involved,  — 
all  showing  the  subtle  thinker,  the  not  entirely  upright 
and  ingenuous  character ;  and  Ames,  whose  fervid, 
highly  figurative  style,  and  allusions  to  classic  authors 
and  study  of  Shakespeare,  reveal  supreme  mastery  of 
expression,  but  whose  lack  of  substance  points  out  that 
that  majestic  era  of  English  prose  was  then  coming  to 
an  end. 

The  verse  of  the  era  may  be  described  as  a  product  of 
the  intellect  set  in  commotion  by  the  war,  and  directed 
by  ambitious  and  patriotic  desire.  With  amazing  pa 
tience  and  fond  credulity,  the  rhymers  Dwight  and 
Barlow  elaborated  their  frigid  epics,  "The  Conquest  of 
Canaan  "  (amounting  to  nine  thousand  six  hundred  and 
seventy-two  lines)  and  the  "  Columbiad "  (with  seven 
thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty).  Just  such  works 
were  produced  in  the  age  of  Queen  Anne  by  Sir  Rich 
ard  Blackmore.  The  "  Conquest  of  Canaan,"  Dwight 
thought,  possessed  the  same  advantages  as  the  Iliad 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  39 

and  Eneid !  In  his  description  of  its  hero  is  an  allu 
sion  to  the  painter,  West.  Of  the  heroine  we  are  told 
that 

"  No  vile  cosmetics  stained  her  lovely  face." 

An  allusion  to  the  death  of  Warren  disfigures  the 
account  of  the  battle  of  Ai.  The  epic  ends  with  a 
vision  of  future  history,  of  America  and  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  of  the  Millennium  and  Last  Judgment,  and 
finally  recurs  to  the  battle  of  Gibeon.  Enough  of  this 
execrable  effort,  which  it  is  doubtful  if  any  but  the 
author  ever  read  through.  In  1794  Dr.  Dwight 
brought  out  his  "  Greenfield  Hill,"  terribly  didactic, 
yet  with  readable  passages.  His  object  in  this  work 
was  "to  promote  prosperity  by  poetry,"  yet  he  began 
it  "merely  to  amuse  his  own  mind."  "'Twas  dropped," 
he  says,  in  superior  style,  "  when  other  amusements 
presented  themselves."  He  "designed  to  imitate  the 
manner  of  several  British  poets  "  ;  he  would  reject 
much,  but  can't  spare  the  time  to  look  over  it !  Some 
of  the  parts  are  in  the  manner  of  Thomson  and  of 
Goldsmith ;  in  one  is  an  attack  upon  slavery.  The 
style  is  bombastic,  prophetic,  filled  with  classical  allu 
sions  (to  Vertumnus,  Flora,  etc.).  The  third  part  is 
on  the  burning  of  Fairfield ;  the  fourth,  in  Spenserian 
stanzas,  treats  of  the  destruction  of  the  Pequods ;  the 
sixth  contains  the  Farmer's  advice  to  the  Villagers  : 
"  He  recommends  an  industrious  and  economical  life, 
the  careful  education  and  government  of  their  children, 
and  particularly  the  establishment  of  good  habits  in 
early  life  ;  enjoining  upon  them  the  offices  of  good 
neighbourhood,  the  avoidance  of  litigation,  and  the 


4O  SKETCH    OF    THE 

careful  cultivation  of  parochial  harmony."  In  the  sev 
enth  part,  the  genius  of  Long  Island  Sound  appears, 
with  sea-green  mitre  and  scaly  mantle,  and  foretells 
the  splendors  of  America. 

Colonel  David  Humphreys,  in  his  "  Happiness  of 
America:  addressed  to  the  Citizens  of  the  United 
States,"  falls  constantly  into  the  stiff,  conventional 
style  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  writes  of  "  gelid 
breath,"  "umbrageous  trees,"  "ambrosial  balm,"  "hy 
perborean"  or  "vesperian  skies."  In  telling  phrase 
he  alludes  to  Barlow  as  that  "  conscious  genius  bold." 
The  performance  includes  one  pleasing  passage,  —  a 
description  of  domestic  life  in  winter.  Humphreys 
speaks  of  his  pieces  as  "  composed  for  amusement, 
with  no  thought  of  printing  them  ;  some  may  promote 
the  glorious  cause  of  liberty."  Machinery,  wool-grow 
ing,  and  commerce  inspire  his  "  National  Industry  of 
the  United  States,"  which  opens  with  the  auspicious 
invocation  :  — 

"  Come,  then,  oh  Industry  !  possess  my  soul." 

Joel  Barlow's  "Hasty  Pudding,"  a  short  mock-epic,  is 
his  most  readable  production.  The  "  Columbiad  "  —  that 
"  monument  of  genius  and  typography,"  illustrated  by 
Smirke  and  dedicated  to  Fulton  —  is  a  "patriotic  poem," 
says  the  author,  "  of  a  political  tendency,"  —  that  is, 
"to  discountenance  the  passion  for  war."  "The  moral 
tendency  of  the  Iliad  and  the  Eneid,"  Barlow  gravely 
assures  us,  "  is  pernicious  ;  Homer's  existence  was  one 
of  the  signal  misfortunes  of  mankind."  Barlow  admits 
that  he  has  changed  the  order  of  battles,  and  has  inter 
polated  imaginary  events,  in  order  to  increase  the  horror 


PHILOSOPHY    OF   AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  4! 

of  the  havoc  and  miseries  of  war.  "My  object,"  he 
repeats,  "  is  altogether  of  a  moral  and  political  nature  "  ; 
and  yet  he  exalts  his  subject,  in  that  "the  modern  mili 
tary  dictionary  is  as  copious  and  poetical  as  the  ancient, 
and  the  shock  of  armies  is  susceptible  of  more  pomp 
and  variety  of  description."  The  notes  which  were  to 
explain  allusions  in  the  text  have  been  "  forced  to  yield 
to  typographical  elegance,"  and  been  gathered  together 
at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

The  "epic"  consists  of  descriptions  of  the  geography 
of  America,  and  a  "prophetic"  delineation  of  its  his 
tory,  vouchsafed  to  Columbus  by  Hesper,  "the  genius 
of  the  western  world."  It  is  rife  with  the  offensive 
Latinisms  of  the  eighteenth  century,  —  "  multifluvian 
bay  "  —  "  contristed  Lawrence  "  —  "  cerulean  robes  "  — 
"  symphonious  strains  "  —  "the  brumal  year  " ;  and  with 
yet  more  shocking  realism  ("to  increase  the  horror  of 
war") :  — 

"Hot  contagion  issues  from  her  box"  (that  is,  Cru 
elty's,  where  the  "meat  is  becoming  putrid"). 

"  Flaming  Phlegethon's  asphaltic  steams 
Streak  the  long  gaping  gulph  .  .  .  the  tar-beat  floor 
Is  clogged  with  spattered  brains  and  glued  with  gore." 

To  crown  this  monument  of  bad  taste,  Barlow  be 
comes  enthusiastic  over  Patience  Wright's  wax-works, 
which  he  exalts  as  "  peerless  art !  " 

Passing  over  the  satires  and  burlesques  of  Trumbull, 
Francis  Hopkinson,  Lemuel  Hopkins,  Richard  Alsop, 
and  Thomas  Green  Fessenden  (dull  enough  in  them 
selves,  but  fascinating  after  our  recent  readings) ;  and 
the  "  patriotic  "  lyrics  "  Hail  Columbia !  "  "  Adams  and 


42  SKETCH    OF    THE 

Liberty,"  "The  Star  Spangled  Banner";  and  remark 
ing  that  never  before  or  since  has  our  literature  been 
so  impressed  into  fhe  service  of  politics  ;  we  come  with 
surprise  and  a  gasp  of  relief  upon  Freneau's  lines  to  the 
"Wild-Honeysuckle" — the  first  stammer  of  poetry  in 
America.  We  delight  to  linger  over  this  little  piece, 
consisting  of  only  four  stanzas  of  the  sort  known  as 
"  sesta  rima,"  and  in  spite  of  its  imperfections,  read  it 
over  and  over  again  until  we  find  that  we  have  learned  it 
by  heart.  And  it  is  worthy  of  our  praise ;  the  delight 
it  shows  in  the  simple  beauty  of  the  flower,  embosomed 
in  nature ;  the  thought  of  the  frosts  of  autumn,  and 
regret  for  death,  —  are  a  foretaste  of  Bryant  and  a  host 
of  followers.  We  may  read  Freneau's  volumes  through, 
and  find  nothing  to  compare  with  this  ;  some  few  pieces 
faintly  recall  it,  but  the  vast  majority  of  them  are  satir 
ical  and  partisan  in  spirit.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
William  Cliffton's  poems  ;  one  of  the  best  of  these  is 
a  bacchanal  song,  but  in  an  introspective  mood  he  ex 
claims:  "I  hate  the  blatant  world,  —  in  some  humble 
thatched  cottage  beside  a  fountain  or  on  a  hill,  remote 
from  care,  I'll  pipe  away  the  sober  evening."  His  case 
ment,  he  tells  us,  shall  overlook  farms  and  pastures,  a 
"dingle,  a  lucid  lake  with  a» torrent  pouring  into  it." 
In  this  romantic  spot,  and  with  his  beloved  Monimia, 
he  will  lead  a  hermit's  life.  Cliffton  died  in  1799,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-seven.  The  edition  of  his  poems 
published  in  the  next  year  closes  with  a  little  cut  of 
the  setting  sun,  a  barren  tree,  and  a  slanting  tomb 
stone  with  the  word  "FINIS"  upon  it,  and  a  tuft  of 
grass  in  front.  He  was  "a  delicate  flower,"  said  his 
friends,  "  'mid  the  rank  herbage." 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  43 

The  advance  of  art  in  America  in  the  last  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  rapid  and  steady.  Portrait- 
painting  was  still  most  remunerative ;  but  a  school  of 
historical  painting  sprang  up,  and  sacred  subjects  were 
attempted.  Matthew  Pratt  of  Pennsylvania  studied 
portraiture,  but  had  to  contend  against  the  prejudices  of 
the  Quakers,  and  was  often  reduced  to  decorating  sign 
boards  for  a  living.  Benjamin  West  soon  abandoned 
that  uncongenial  soil,  and  became  far  more  useful  to  his 
fellow-countrymen  abroad  than  ever  he  could  have  been 
at  home.  In  Boston,  Copley  was  painting  hundreds  of 
good  portraits.  He  gave  attention  to  the  backgrounds 
of  his  pictures  —  draperies  or  columns,  or  perhaps  a 
distant  view  through  a  window  —  and  to  other  acces 
sories,  especially  such  materials  as  silk,  satin,  velvet, 
lace  and  gold  embroidery.  These,  with  the  increasingly 
easy  pose  of  his  figures,  reflect  the  growing  comfort  of 
the  age.  Charles  Wilson  Peale  went  from  Maryland  to 
study  under  Copley,  then  visited  England,  and  finally 
settled  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  a  versatile  artist; 
modelled  in  wax,  cast  in  plaster,  painted  miniatures  and 
portraits  of  many  historical  personages,  engraved  in 
mezzotint,  was  a  silversmith,  politician,  soldier,  natural 
ist,  and  dentist.  Trumbull  was  our  chief  historical 
painter,  and  tried  classical  and  Biblical  subjects  ;  Gilbert 
Stuart,  our  finest  portrait-painter,  perfectly  natural  and 
easy,  fearless  in  the  use  of  color,  and  of  wonderful 
freshness  in  flesh-tints.  He  inclined  to  ruddy  hues,  as 
Copley  did  to  yellow. 

At  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  on  the  $th  of  September, 
1752,  Lewis  Hallam  and  the  "American  company"  of 
players  performed  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  the  first 


44  SKETCH    OF    THE 

play  ever  given  in  the  colonies  by  a  regular  company. 
In  the  summer  of  that  year,  a  brick  theatre  had  been 
erected  in  Annapolis;  and  in  September,  1753,  one  was 
opened  in  New  York  with  a  performance  of  Steele's 
"  Conscious  Lovers,"  by  Hallam's  company.  In  the 
spring  of  the  following  year,  Rowe's  "  Fair  Penitent " 
was  produced  at  Philadelphia ;  and  there  a  theatre  was 
built  in  1759.  About  this  time  one  was  erected  at  New 
port.  In  July,  1769,  "Venice  Preserved"  was  acted  at 
Albany.  A  few  years  later  the  "  Maryland  Gazette  " 
advertised  a  performance  at  Annapolis,  "with  a  new 
set  of  SCENES."  In  the  summer  of  1773  a  theatre  was 
built  in  Charleston. 

This  progress  of  dramatic  art  had  a  certain  effect 
upon  literature.  Thomas  Godfrey  the  younger  com 
posed  a  turgid  tragedy,  "  The  Prince  of  Parthia,"  the 
first  in  America.  Royall  Tyler  wrote  "The  Contrast," 
which  satirizes  social  follies  so  severely  that  it  can 
hardly  be  called  a  comedy  ;  and  William  Dunlap,  artist, 
actor,  author,  and  historian,  began  to  write  a  long  list 
of  plays. 

Our  survey  of  the  literature  of  that  age  is  concluded 
by  mention  of  our  first  romancer,  Charles  Brockden 
Brown,  and  his  extraordinary  productions,  "Wieland," 
"Arthur  Mervyn,"  "  Ormond,"  "Edgar  Huntly,"  of 
which  the  last  is  the  best.  These  are  nightmare  sto 
ries,  written  in  an  abrupt,  spasmodic  style ;  over  them 
all  hangs  a  dark  fatalism,  a  sense  of  pursuit  by  some 
inhuman  foe.  To  the  careful  reader  they  yield  signifi 
cant  evidence  of  the  materialism  and  immorality  that 
ensued  upon  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  They 
are  analytical  and  unhealthy.  It  is  not  surprising  to 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  45 

learn  that  Brown  was  an  invalid.  "  Scarcely  ever,"  he 
confesses,  "have  I  known  vivacity  of  mind."  It  is  im 
portant  to  notice  that  he  satisfied  a  sickly  craving  of 
the  age.  Fisher  Ames  protested  against  the  "fashion 
in  newspapers"  of  recording  "loathsome  and  shocking 
details  "  of  murders,  prodigies,  dreams,  and  the  like. 
"  The  newspapers  are  busy  spreading  superstition."  The 
age  was  restless,  and  vexed  by  uneasy  dreams  before  the 
daybreak  of  pure  imagination. 


46  SKETCH    OF   THE 


IV. 

WITH  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812-15,  a  new  era>  ex 
tending  to  the  Civil  War,  opened  for  the  United  States. 
It  was  ushered  in  by  the  rapid  admission  of  new  states, 
the  purchase  of  Florida,  the  Compromise  of  1820,  and 
the  "  era  of  good  feeling  "  ;  and  was  accompanied  by 
vast  increase  of  wealth  and  population.  Relieved  from 
foreign  interference,  the  country  was  able  to  devote 
itself  to  internal  development  and  its  domestic  affairs. 
The  great  questions  of  freedom  and  union,  slavery  and 
disunion,  arose  for  settlement.  Here  is  to  be  found 
the  key-note  of  the  period  :  it  was  an  ethical  age,  and 
was  introduced  in  literature  by  Channing's  "  Moral 
Argument  against  Calvinism,"  published  in  1820.  The 
transition  between  the  period  last  studied  and  that  now 
opening  before  us  was  effected  in  a  remarkable  way 
in  another  department  of  thought  by  the  lectures  and 
writings  of  several  eminent  jurists,  —  Kent,  Story, 
Wheaton,  and  Greenleaf. 

There  appear  to  be  two  stages  in  moral  development. 
The  passage  from  determinism  and  egoism  to  intuitive 
ethics  is  through  sensibility,  and  appeal  to  the  emotions, 
the  sympathies.  This  is  eudaemonism,  or  regard  for  the 
happiness  of  others.  The  moral  sentiment  has  worked 
itself  free  from  self-love,  but  is  still  clouded  by  a  sensu 
ous  tinge.  The  publication  of  an  American  edition  of 
Adam  Smith's  "Theory  of  the  Moral  Sentiments,"  and 
Frisbie's  review  of  it  in  1819,  are  now  perceived  to  be 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  47 

memorable  events  in  the  history  of  American  literature. 
Samuel  Hopkins'  identification  of  the  will  with  the 
heart ;  his  doctrine  that  the  "  whole  of  the  duty  and 
obedience  of  moral  agents  consists  in  Love  exercised  in 
a  perfect  manner  and  degree"  (we  know  the  influence 
of  this  upon  Channing)  ;  Emmons'  rule :  "  Preach  with 
animation  enough  to  produce  a  great  excitement  of  the 
natural  sympathies," -  —  all  prove  that  the  inception  of 
the  new  movement  is  to  be  looked  for  long  before  the 
date  given  above.  The  year  1820,  however,  is  conven 
ient  to  refer  to  as  the  time  when  the  ethical  impulse 
became  finally  dominant. 

It  wrought  profound  changes  in  theology.  The  doc 
trines  of  total  depravity  and  the  moral  impotence  of 
man,  of  the  atonement  and  irresistible  grace,  were  sure 
to  be  questioned,  denied,  rejected  by  some  at  such  a 
time.  Universalism  arose,  to  discredit  the  appeal  to 
the  fear  of  hell  as  a  motive  to  righteousness.  The  doc 
trine  of  the  perfect  humanity  of  Christ  was  now  empha 
sized,  and  the  New  Testament  was  at  last  studied  with 
more  interest  than  the  Old.  The  plenary  inspiration  of 
the  books  of  the  Bible  was  denied,  and  revelations  of 
God  began  to  be  looked  for  elsewhere,  especially  within 
the  human  soul.  "  Yourself  a  new-born  bard  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  cast  behind  you  all  conformity,"  said  Em 
erson  :  "  You  are  open  to  the  influx  of  the  all-knowing 
Spirit."  "The  universe  becomes  transparent,  and  the 
light  of  higher  laws  than  its  own  shines  through  it," 
and  "the  world  is  an  incarnation  of  God."  "The  in 
variable  mark  of  wisdom  is  to  see  the  miraculous  in  the 
common."  "The  assumption  that  the  Bible  is  closed  is 
an  error."  Here  we  should  not  forget  that  Hopkins  rose 


48  SKETCH    OF    THE 

above  idolatry  of  the  Bible  :  "  Regeneration  is  wrought 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  immediately,"  he  said,  "by  no 
human  means,  not  even  by  the  Word  of  God." 

A  profound  view  of  the  relation  between  nature  and 
man  was  a  precious  gift  of  the  new  spirit.  Said  Chan- 
ning,  speaking  of  the  two  places  he  chiefly  haunted  for 
study,  one  being  the  Redwood  Library :  "  The  other 
place  was  yonder  beach,  —  my  daily  resort,  dear  to  me 
in  the  sunshine,  still  more  attractive  in  the  storm. 
Seldom  do  I  visit  it  now  [1836]  without  thinking  of  the 
work  which  there,  in  the  sight  of  that  beauty,  in  the 
sound  of  those  waves,  was  carried  on  in  my  soul.  No 
spot  on  earth  has  helped  to  form  me  so  much  as  that 
beach.  There  I  lifted  up  my  voice  in  praise  amidst  the 
tempest ;  there,  softened  by  beauty,  I  poured  out  my 
thanksgiving  and  contrite  confessions.  There,  in  rev 
erential  sympathy  with  the  mighty  power  around  me,  I 
became  conscious  of  power  within.  There,  struggling 
thoughts  and  emotions  broke  forth,  as  if  moved  to  utter 
ance  by  nature's  eloquence  of  the  winds  and  waves. 
There  began  a  happiness  surpassing  all  worldly  pleas 
ures,  all  gifts  of  fortune  —  the  happiness  of  communing 
with  the  works  of  God."  "The  greatest  delight  which 
the  fields  and  woods  minister,"  said  Emerson,  "is  the 
suggestion  of  an  occult  relation  between  man  and  the 
vegetable." 

Here  originate  the  contemplative  poems  of  Bryant, 
the  real  father  of  American  poetry,  the  first  who  was 
in  earnest  with  it.  "Bryant  endows  inanimate  nature 
with  sentience  —  the  severe  test  of  a  poet,"  said  Poe. 
His  lines  beginning,  "Oh,  fairest  of  the  rural  maids" 
are  an  exquisite  expression  of  the  relation  unfolded 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE  49 

above.  Here,  too,  begins  the  landscape  school  of  paint 
ing,  with  Doughty,  Cole,  Durand,  Kensett,  and  Gifford. 
Geology  and  natural  history  were  prosecuted  with  en 
thusiasm,  and  reacted  upon  literature  through  the 
medium  of  such  works  as  those  of  Godman,  Audubon, 
and  Hitchcock. 

Social  relations  were  affected  by  the  active  spirit  of 
the  age,  and  many  reforms  were  instituted.  Radical 
changes  in  prison  discipline  were  brought  about  in 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York ;  temperance  societies 
were  organized,  and  multiplied  rapidly;  in  1822,  Ben 
jamin  Lundy  started  the  first  anti-slavery  journal,  the 
"  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,"  and  soon  began 
to  lecture  on  abolition  ;  in  1829,  Garrison  assisted  Lundy 
in  editing  his  paper,  —  two  years  later  founded  "The 
Liberator,"  and,  in  1832,  the  "American  Anti-Slavery 
Society  "  ;  the  question  of  women's  rights  began  to  be 
agitated ;  in  the  schools,  corporal  punishment  was  dis 
countenanced  ;  roseate  theories  of  social  regeneration 
were  put  into  practice  at  New  Harmony,  Brook  Farm, 
and  Fruitlands ;  great  enthusiasm  was  manifested  for 
the  cause  of  missions,  —  the  Judsons  labored  in  Bur- 
mah,  —  Robert  Baird  travelled  in  the  south  of  Europe, 
striving  to  revive  Protestantism  there ;  and  Peace  Soci 
eties  were  formed ;  Elihu  Burritt  edited  the  "  Christian 
Citizen"  at  Worcester  in  1844,  and  in  1846  went  to 
England  to  form  the  "  League  of  Universal  Brother 
hood." 

An  important  point  to  notice  is  the  revival  of  interest 
in  the  literature  and  art  of  Italy  and  Spain  (especially 
in  the  years  1820-1840),  and  a  deepening  appreciation 
of  the  thought  of  Germany  and  ancient  Greece  (through 


5O  SKETCH    OF    THE 

the  decades  1840-1860).  The  last  was  doubtless  fos 
tered  by  sympathy  with  the  Greeks  in  their  struggle  for  ' 
freedom ;  a  feeling  which  found  noble  expression  in  ' 
Halleck's  "  Marco  Bozzaris."  Homer  began  to  emerge 
from  the  obscurity  to  which  he  had  been  consigned  by 
Mather  and  Barlow ;  and  was  edited  and  annotated  by 
Felton  in  1833,  with  the  illustrations  of  Flaxman.  In 
1840  Felton  published  a  translation  of  Menzel's  "German 
Literature  "  ;  and  shortly  after  edited  Isocrates'  "  Pane- 
gyricus"  and  vEschylus'  "Agamemnon,"  and  selections 
from  the  Greek  historians.  He  travelled  in  Greece  in 
1853-1854.  "The  Roman  character  has  had  its  sway 
long  enough,"  said  he,  "  and  it  is  time  the  Greek  should 
take  its  turn."  With  this  idea  it  is  interesting  to  con 
nect  the  rise  of  the  art  of  sculpture  in  America  ;  the 
classic  style  of  Horatio  Greenough,  the  ideal  figures  of 
Powers.  The  model  of  the  "  Greek  Slave  "  was  finished 
in  1839;  the  same  year  Crawford  designed  his  "Or 
pheus." 

The  age  gave  rise  to  an  ideal  of  culture  of  which 
Channing's  essay  is  a  beautiful  exposition.  Two  famous 
orations  on  "The  American  Scholar"  were  delivered,— 
Verplanck's  at  Union  College  in  1836,  Emerson's  at 
Cambridge  in  1837.  Sympathy  with  the  people  is  the 
key-note  of  the  first :  "  Your  studies  must  have  an  inter 
est  for  others,  —  the  greatest  are  not  solitary  scholars." 
Yet  "America  is  propitious  to  independence  of  thought." 
Verplanck  condemns  the  intolerance  of  partisans  of  late 
years,  and  urges  independence  of  party  for  the  good  of 
all.  The  turbulence  of  Jackson's  administration  prob 
ably  disgusted  many  whose  energies  would  otherwise 
have  sought  an  outlet  in  politics,  and  diverted  them  into 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  51 

the  paths  of  literature.  Emerson  bade  his  hearers  not 
to  idolize  a  book,  or  be  over-influenced  by  genius.  Self- 
confidence  is  the  note  of  his  oration.  The  scholar 
should  trust  himself  and  be  brave,  should  domesticate 
culture.  "  If  the  single  man  plant  himself  indomitably 
on  his  instincts  and  there  abide,  the  huge  world  will 
come  round  to  him."  "  Is  it  'not  the  chief  disgrace  in 
the  world,"  he  asks,  "  not  to  be  an  unit  ? "  So  powerful 
was  the  impetus  to  independence  of  thought  and  breadth 
of  culture  that  several  scholars  (notably  Everett,  Ripley, 
and  Emerson  himself)  abandoned  the  ministry  to  become 
lecturers,  critics,  and  men  of  letters. 

A  pleasing  freshness  and  impulsiveness  of  youthful 
sentiment  invest  the  "  era  of  good  feeling."  Interesting 
young  people  like  Drake,  Eastburn,  Sands,  and  the 
Davidson  sisters,  wrote  poetry  profusely ;  and  their 
early  deaths  caused  much  lamentation.  Poetry  was  a 
"  delightful  amusement "  to  the  bashful  Eastburn,  au 
thor  of  "  Yamoyden."  Some  portions  of  that  poem  were 
"hastily  added  and  printed  as  soon  as  written,"  by  Sands, 
who  assures  us  that  he  is  "perfectly  indifferent  as  to 
his  reputation,  but  could  not  bear  to  see  this  joint  pro 
duction,  consecrated  by  the  death  of  a  friend,  meet  with 
unfair  criticism  or  sullen  neglect."  It  is  a  strain 

"  The  last  that  either  bard  shall  e'er  essay." 

"  Friend  of  my  youth  !  with  thee  began  my  song, 
And  o'er  thy  bier  its  latest  accents  die." 

The  subject  of  "Yamoyden"  is  the  love  of  an  Indian 
for  a  Puritan  girl.  The  action  takes  place  in  the  time 
of  King  Philip's  War.  It  is  composed  in  the  octosyl 
labic  measure  of  Walter  Scott,  but  with  occasional 


52  SKETCH    OF    THE 

variations  —  notably  a  dithyrambic  to  the  "  Manito  of 
Dreams."  The  hero's  form,  his  "martial  head,"  his 
"polished  limbs,"  were  "free  and  bold,  and  cast  in 
nature's  noblest  mould."  One  canto  begins,  character 
istically,  with  an  address  to  evening. 

With  such  effusion  of  sentiment,  and  with  imagina 
tion  airy  or  passionate  (as  in  Drake's  "Culprit  Fay" 
and  Mrs.  Brooks'  "  Zophiel  "),  was  ushered  in  the  new 
literary  epoch.  It  was  the  fashion  to  muse  upon  love, 
old  letters,  evening,  autumn,  grave-yards,  and  the  past. 
There  was  fierce  contest  With  "base-moulded  souls," 
with  "  clay-cold,  lukewarm,  half-hearted  souls  "  ;  much 
"clasping  of  grief,"  and  brooding  over  wrongs,  and 
hunger  for  sympathy.  Nowhere  is  this  spirit  so  vividly 
reflected  as  in  the  pages  of  old  annuals,  then  extraor 
dinarily  popular,  such  as  the  "Token,"  edited  by  Good 
rich  ;  the  "  Talisman,"  by  Bryant,  Verplanck,  and  Sands ; 
the  "  Gift,"  the  "  Rose,"  "  Friendship's  Offering,"  etc. 
These  were  illustrated,  often  by  good  artists,  and  were 
made  up  of  reveries  upon  "  Moonlight,"  "Wild  Flowers," 
"Tears,"  "The  Twilight  Hour,"  "Memory,"  "The  Fall 
of  the  Leaf"  ;  sonnets  "To  Hannah  More,"  or  "  On  the 
Death  of  a  Child,"  or  "To  a  Beloved  Parent  on  her 
Recovery  from  a  Dangerous  Illness,"  or  "  On  burning  a 
Packet  of  Letters  "  ;  arid  tales  of  wonder  or  terror,  "The 
Mysterious  Wedding,"  "  The  Bandit  of  the  Alps,"  "The 
Strange  Mariner."  Children,  too,  must  have  their  little 
annual:  "The  Rosette,"  containing  "The  Neglected 
Bird,"  "A  Dirge  for  a  Young  Girl,"  "The  Fading 
Rose,"  "The  Swan's  Melody";  or  good  Mrs.  Sigourney's 
"  Olive  Leaves,"  with  its  "  Childhood's  Piety  "  and  "The 
Dying  Sunday-School  Boy."  Mrs.  Sigourney  wrote 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  53 

"Biographies  of  Pious  Persons,"  "Letters  to  Young 
Ladies,"  "  How  to  be  Happy,"  "  The  Weeping  Willow," 
and  very  much  more.  It  was  the  day  of  marble  grave 
stones,  with  weeping  willows  drooping  over  urns  above 
the  name  and  "life's  brief  date,"  the  text  and  pathetic 
stanza.  Eliza  Leslie  describes  a  piece  of  embroidery 
the  design  of  which  "  is  a  tomb  with  a  weeping  willow 
and  two  ladies  with  long  hair,  one  dressed  in  pink,  the 
other  in  blue,  holding  a  wreath  between  them  over  the 
top  of  the  urn.  The  ladies  are  Friendship.  Then  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  piece  is  a  cottage  and  an  oak,  and 
a  little  girl  dressed  in  yellow,  sitting  on  a  green  bank 
and  putting  a  wreath  round  the  neck  of  a  lamb.  Noth 
ing  can  be  more  natural  than  the  lamb's  wool  —  it  is 
done  entirely  in  French  knots.  The  child  and  the  lamb 
are  Innocence."  "  I  know  the  piece  well,"  said  Gum- 
mage  ;  "  I've  drawn  them  by  dozens." 

Though  now  the  "subject  of  a  passing  smile,"  those 
forgotten  annuals  did  good  work  in  their  day.  They 
cultivated  a  taste  for  art,  and  encouraged  the  composi 
tion  of  sketches,  essays,  and  short  stories  —  literary 
forms  of  great  value.  Many  of  the  first  efforts  of  au 
thors  who  afterward  became  conspicuous  appeared  in 
those  gift-books. 

Essay-writing,  criticism,  reviewing,  were  favored  by  the 
magazines  that  now  began  to  appear.  Brockden  Brown 
had  been  a  pioneer  in  this  department,  through  his 
"Monthly  "and  "Literary"  magazines.  The  "  North- 
American  Review"  was  established  in  1815  ;  the  "New 
York  Mirror"  in  1853  ;  the  "New  England  Magazine" 
in  1831  ;  Hoffman's  "Knickerbocker  Magazine  "in  1832; 
and  the  "Dial"  in  1840.  It  is  necessary  that  in  an  age 


54  SKETCH    OF   THE 

of  authorship  a  running  comment  of  criticism  should 
accompany  production;  and  probably  Poe's  papers,  "The 
Literati,"  published  in  the  "Broadway  Journal,"  helped 
to  correct  too  great  exuberance,  though  their  amazing 
personalities  would  not  be  tolerated  at  the  present  day. 
This  personal  element  (so  strong,  for  instance,  in  Willis' 
"  Pencillings  by  the  Way  ")  was  a  peculiarity  of  the  time. 

Beside  Channing,  Allston  and  Irving  were  probably 
the  most  prominent  personages  of  their  day.  Allston 
exercised  a  wide  and  cultivating  influence,  greatly  ex 
tended  the  area  of  art,  and  lent,  by  his  elegance  and 
good-breeding,  a  dignity  to  the  artist's  profession  which 
it  had  previously  lacked.  He  painted  scriptural  sub 
jects  in  brilliant  color,  after  the  manner  of  Titian  ;  land 
scapes  like  some  of  the  Dutch  masters  and  Salvator 
Rosa ;  marines  in  the  style  of  Joseph  Vernet ;  and  lit 
erary  subjects,  drawn  from  the  works  of  Spenser,  Shake 
speare,  and  Scott.  Hence  it  will  be  seen  that  he  lacked 
originality ;  his  work  was  assimilative,  tentative,  irreso 
lute,  and  thus  mirrors  the  "form  and  pressure"  of  the 
time.  His  languishing  "  Rosalie  "  expresses  its  ideal. 
Allston  wrote  verses,  "  The  Sylphs  of  the  Seasons,"  and 
a  romance,  "Monaldi,"  of  aesthetic  and  didactic  ten 
dency.  In  this  the  characters  of  Fialto  and  Maldura  are 
intended  to  show  how  sensuality  and  ambition  harden 
the  heart  ;  and  here  again  appears  Rosalia,  the  feminine 
ideal. 

James  Gates  Percival  —  poet,  scholar,  and  philologist, 
botanist,  geologist,  chemist,  and  surgeon  —  was  another 
of  the  versatile  characters  of  the  period  whose  work  is 
marked  by  diffuseness  and  indecision,  whose  aims  were 
high  and  execution  inadequate. 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  55 

The  department  of  didactic  fiction  was  cultivated  by 
Miss  Sedgwick  (in  "Redwood,"  "Live  and  let  Live," 
etc.).  With  her  may  be  compared  Miss  Cummins 
("The  Lamplighter,"  etc.).  Works  of  this  class  are 
constructed  upon  one  general  plan  :  the  moral  element 
has  to  be  mingled  —  to  make  it  palatable  —  with  lavish 
sentiment ;  and  stock  devices  are  employed  to  arouse 
the  emotions  of  sympathy,  alarm,  hatred,  and  so  forth, 
—  the  introduction  of  an  attractive  invalid,  cripple,  or 
blind  girl,  as  a  leading  character,  and  collisions  of  ves 
sels,  conflagrations,  runaway  horses,  or  other  accidents, 
with  burglaries,  embezzlements,  suicide,  and  murder. 
The  list  of  subjects  in  the  annuals  may  be  referred  to 
as  illustrating  this  union  of  moral  and  sensational  ele 
ments. 

Of  all  authors,  Irving  was  perfectly  suited  to  the  taste 
of  the  time,  insomuch  that  the  epoch  included  by  the 
publication  of  his  "  Sketch-Book  "  and  of  his  "  Life  of 
Margaret  Miller  Davidson  "  might  well  be  called  by  his 
name  ;  he  was  its  essence.  That  his  influence  was  not 
powerful,  every  one  admits ;  but  it  was  certainly  perva 
sive.  In  one  word,  he  was  sympathetic ;  and  his  senti 
ment  was  kept  from  declining  into  sentimentality  by 
his  playfulness  and  fine  sense  of  humor,  while  it  was 
preserved  from  evaporating  in  mere  revery  by  benevo 
lence  and  desire  of  approbation.  His  work  falls  under 
three  general  heads :  provincial  or  generic,  historical 
and  biographical,  and  viatic  (dealing  with  travel  and  ad 
venture),  —  the  first  of  which  is  represented  by  the 
"  Knickerbocker  History  of  New  York  "  and  the  tales 
in  the  "  Sketch-Book,"  —  "  Rip  Van  Winkle  "  and  the 
"Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow"  ;  the  second  by  the  "Con- 


56  SKETCH    OF    THE 

quest  of  Granada  "  and  the  lives  of  Columbus  and  his 
companions,  of  Mahomet,  Goldsmith,  Washington ;  and 
the  third  by  the  "Tour  on  the  Prairies,"  "Astoria,"  and 
-"Adventures  of  Captain  Bonneville."  Only  in  the 
works  of  the  first  class  (his  earliest)  is  he  truly  original 
and  of  perennial  interest,  but  by  these  he  became  the 
father  of  a  number  of  genre  artists,  —  Mount,  Inman, 
Darley ;  and  of  the  most  flourishing  school  of  American 
fiction  (of  which  Thorpe,  in  his  admirable  sketches  of 
the  quaint  habits  and  humors  of  the  dwellers  by  the 
Mississippi,  is  a  good  early  representative).  In  the 
works  of  his  middle  style,  Irving  proved,  like  Allston, 
the  attraction  that  Southern  Europe  had  for  the  mind 
of  his  generation,  —  in  his  case  especially  Spain,  —  and 
thus  he  became  the  progenitor  of  Prescott  and  Ticknor. 
And  finally  in  his  third  style  he  co-operated  with  Cooper 
in  producing  a  series  of  brilliant  narratives  of  voyage 
and  adventure,  such  as  the  works  of  the  younger  Dana, 
E.  K.  Kane,  and  Bayard  Taylor. 

We  like  to  think  of  Irving  as  taking  his  ease,  in 
the  autumn  of  his  life,  at  Sunnyside,  —  a  name  that 
instantly  suggests  "  Idlewild,"  "  Undercliff,"  and  other 
pleasant  and  picturesque  homes  of  literary  men,  and 
recalls  the  labors  of  the  genial  Downing  —  our  first 
landscape  gardener  —  in  elevating  the  taste  and  beauti 
fying  the  estates  of  wealthy  Americans. 

A  vast  number  of  historical  novels  upon  the  colonial 
and  Revolutionary  periods,  and  border  romances,  were 
produced  in  the  time  of  Irving,  all  showing  the  influence 
of  his  style,  and  generally  referable  to  one  or  another 
division  of  his  writings.  Such  are  Paulding's  "  Puritan 
and  his  Daughter  "  and  "  Dutchman's  Fireside  "  ;  Bird's 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  57 

"Calavar  "  (a  tale  of  the  conquest  of  Mexico)  and  "The 
Nick  of  the  Woods  "  ;  Kennedy's  excellent  works,  "  Rob 
of  the  Bowl,"  "Horse-shoe  Robinson,"  and  "Swallow 
Barn  "  ;  and  of  a  younger  generation  Motley's  "  Merry 
Mount  "  ;  John  Esten  Cooke's  "  Virginia  Comedians  " 
and  Theodore  Winthrop's  "  Edwin  Brothertoft "  and 
spirited  "John  Brent."  These  works  were  also  in 
fluenced,  as  was  implied  above,  by  J.  Fenimore  Cooper, 
whose  novels  can  be  similarly  classified :  "  The  Wept  of 
Wish-ton-Wish  "  (a  tale  of  colonial  New  England),  "  The 
Spy"  and  other  romances  of  the  Revolution,  and  the 
fine  series  of  tales  of  the  wilderness  and  the  sea,  begin 
ning  with  the  "Pioneers,"  the  "Prairie,"  the  "Pilot," 
and  the  "Red  Rover."  Meanwhile,  W.  Gilmore  Simms 
was  producing  in  swift  succession  his  stories  of  the 
South:  "  Vasconcelos "  (a  tale  of  De  Soto),  and  the 
"Yemassee";  the  "Partisan,"  "Katharine  Walton,"  and 
others  upon  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  with  "  Guy 
Rivers,"  "Richard  Hurdis,"  "Border  Beagles,"  and 
"  Beauchampe  "  —  dealing  with  the  strange,  semi-civil 
ized  society  of  the  South  at  the  close  of  the  last  century 
and  the  beginning  of  the  present.  These  latter  tales 
resemble  each  other  in  construction,  character-sketching, 
scenery,  and  repulsiveness  of  subject.  Simms  struggled 
bravely  to  build  up  a  literature  in  the  South,  composed 
poems,  dramas,  histories,  and  biographies,  edited  Shake 
speare  and  many  magazines,  wrote  criticisms  and  reviews, 
and  delivered  orations  and  lectures,  all  in  vain.  The 
proud  and  indolent  planter,  "  who  neither  cared  for  nor 
thought  of  seeking  public  applause  for  his  writings,"  who 
was  then  intent  upon  sustaining  a  social  condition 
"  based  upon  the  great  physical,  philosophical,  and  moral 


58  SKETCH    OF    THE 

truth,  that  the  negro  is  not  equal  to  the  white  man,  and 
that  slavery  is  his  natural  and  normal  condition"  ;  who 
in  his  "truly  provincial  vanity  and  prejudice"  fancied 
that  his  type  of  civilization  was  the  highest  in  the  world, 
"  frank,  brave,  elegant,  chivalrous  "  ;  could  not  and  would 
not  produce  works  to  be  submitted  to  Yankee  criticism  ; 
and  to  have  his  "peculiar  institution"  alluded  to  in 
novel, 'newspaper,  or  magazine,  "galled  his  kibe."  Long 
ago,  even  before  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion,  George  Mason  of  Virginia  saw  and  said  that 
"slavery  discourages  arts." 

The  only  art  that  could  flourish  in  that  atmosphere 
—  unoffending  because  of  its  inarticulateness  —  was 
music ;  and  Gottschalk,  the  greatest  pianist  our  country 
has  produced,  expressed  in  strange  dance-tunes  and  in 
the  harp-like,  melancholy  chords  of  his  "  Last  Hope " 
the  restlessness,  the  lurking  sadness,  and  what  there 
was  of  hidden  sweetness  in  the  spirit  of  the  South. 

In  the  city  of  Baltimore  literature  was  upheld  by  the 
lyric  poet  Pinkney,  by  Kennedy,  and  Poe.  The  latter 
is  the  completest  literary  exponent  of  the  South,  in  his 
passionateness  and  insubordination ;  his  wretchedness 
breaking  forth  in  fitful,  sardonic  laughter ;  his  intem 
perance  and  pessimism.  John  Randolph,  a  moment 
before  his  death,  traced  on  a  scrap  of  paper  the  word 
"  Remorse  "  ;  and  what  but  a  symbol  of  remorse  is  Poe's 
"  Raven  "  ?  What  but  an  allegory  of  the  burial  of  con 
science  and  ruin  resulting  therefrom  is  "  The  Fall  of 
the  House  of  Usher  "  ?  No  one  can  read  the  "  Dream 
within  a  Dream "  without  finding  in  it  a  piteous  and 
painful  confession  of  moral  impotence,  or  the  "City  in 
the  Sea"  without  perceiving  a  dread  expectation  of  a 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  59 

steadily  advancing  and  tremendous  crisis.  In  many 
places  this  feeling  finds  utterance  in  a  nervous  shriek 
of  weakness  and  despair.  In  his  benumbing  sense  of 
the  pursuit  of  a  relentless  fate,  Poe  reminds  us  of  Brock- 
den  Brown,  —  indeed,  he  stands  on  no  higher  moral 
plane.  This  is  a  point  of  extreme  importance ;  the 
South  seems  always  to  have  been  just  one  degree  behind 
the  North  in  spiritual  development.  Foe's  keen  sensi 
tiveness  to  criticism  either  of  himself  or  of  his  writings 
is  a  noteworthy  trait.  The  melody  of  his  best  poems  is 
haunting,  but  tended  ever  to  degenerate  into  mere  me 
chanical  jingle.  His  tone  is  spirituous,  never  spiritual. 
Alone  among  our  poets,  Poe  links  us  to  European  lit 
erature  by  his  musical  despair — so  similar  to  that  of 
Leopardi,  Pushkin,  Heine,  Lenau,  Petofi,  and  De 
Musset  (all  descendants  of  Byron). 

In  pleasant  contrast  with  the  pessimistic  Poe,  stands 
the  man  whom  he  assailed  with  fanatical  vehemence 
highly  amusing  in  its  inappropriateness,  —  the  gentle, 
optimistic  Longfellow,  the  Irving  of  poetry.  Longfel 
low  had  to  endure,  too,  sharp  criticism  from  the  Tran- 
scendentalists,  and  was  perhaps  a  belated  singer;  but 
he  was  keenly  alive  to  impressions  of  beauty,  and  his 
writings  delicately  register  the  advances  of  culture  in 
his  day,  passing  as  they  do  from  Spanish  scenes  and 
subjects  (the  "Spanish  Student")  to  mediaeval  and  Ger 
man  (the  "Golden  Legend  "),  and  finally  to  American 
("Hiawatha").  He  will  always  be  a  favorite  with 
readers  who  are  passing  through  a  phase  of  generous 
and  healthy  sentiment. 

James  Marsh's  edition  of  Coleridge's  "Aids  to  Re 
flection,"  with  prefatory  essay  and  explanatory  notes ; 


6O  SKETCH    OF    THE 

an  eager  interest  in  the  works  of  Goethe,  aroused  by 
his  death  in  1832,  and  by  the  writings  of  Carlyle ;  an 
acquaintance  with  German  thought  ("a  philosophy," 
said  Hedge,  "which  has  given  such  an  impulse  to 
mental  culture  and  scientific  research,  which  has  done 
so  much  to  establish  and  to  extend  the  spiritual  in  man 
and  the  ideal  in  nature  ")  ;  the  new  Hellenic  learning, 
especially  the  study  of  Plato  ;  and  (adds  Emerson)  "  the 
influence  of  Swedenborg  and  of  phrenology,"  —  may  all 
be  alleged  as  causes  of  that  remarkable  phenomenon 
known  as  Transcendentalism.  To  us,  these  appear 
rather  as  symptoms  of  that  profound  change,  that  new 
emancipation  of  the  individual  from  "the  chains  of  cus 
tom,  which  was  finally  to  free  the  country  from  obsequi 
ousness,  timid  deference  to  public  opinion  (noted  as  a 
striking  characteristic  by  Miss  Martineau),  and  sensi 
tiveness  to  English  criticism, — all  of  which  marked  the 
sentimental  epoch.  The  root  of  Transcendentalism  may 
be  found  at  home.  As  long  ago  as  1819,  the  weakness 
of  Adam  Smith's  theory  of  morals  had  been  pointed 
out  by  Levi  Frisbie,  when  he  said  :  "  In  judging  of  our 
own  conduct,  we  thus  refer  to  the  opinions  of  other 
men."  Here  the  significance  of  the  decline  of  the 
practice  of  duelling  in  the  North,  and  its  persistence 
in  the  South,  becomes  apparent.  In  1823,  Channing 
exclaimed  :  "  Let  others  spin  and  weave  for  us,  but  let 
them  not  think  for  us.  Shall  America  be  only  an  echo 
of  what  is  thought  and  written  under  the  aristocracies 
beyond  the  ocean  ? "  In  the  same  year  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  was  promulgated.  In  1837,  Cooper  broke 
forth  in  irritation  against  submission  to  popular  opin 
ion  ;  there  has  been  quite  "  too  much  deference  to  the 
control  of  the  public,"  said  he. 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  6 1 

Finally,  the  great  thought  came,  the  apprehension  of 
the  moral  law  and  of  the  indwelling  of  the  Universal 
Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  men  (justifying  poor  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson  and  the  persecuted  Quakers  of  old  time),  enfran 
chising  the  imagination, — if  that  be  the  shadowing  forth 
of  spiritual  things  by  material,  —  and  working  a  fusion 
of  God,  nature,  and  man.  This  was  the  enthusiasm 
that  carried  the  nation  through  four  years  of  fearful 
war. 

Jones  Very  stands,  a  singular  and  noteworthy  figure, 
in  the  dawn  of  this  spiritual  renascence.  He  was  in 
structor  in  Greek  at  Harvard  College  in  the  years  1836- 
1838,  and  in  the  latter  year  underwent  a  remarkable 
religious  experience,  under  the  influence  of  which  he 
composed  his  profound  and  limpid  sonnets  (in  the 
Shakespearian,  not  the  Petrarchian  form),  which  place 
him  indisputably  at  the  head  of  all  American  sonnet- 
ists.  Very  is,  so  to  speak,  the  pineal  gland,  the  point 
of  union  of  emotion  and  pure  thought,  in  which  may  be 
studied  the  passage  of  the  sentimental  into  the  transcen 
dental  epoch. 

The  latter  might  as  well  be  called  the  Emersonian 
period,  for  its  inspiring  vision  was  Emerson's.  "  The 
universe  becomes  transparent,"  he  exclaimed  in  ecstasy, 
"  and  the  light  of  higher  laws  than  its  own  shines 
through  it.  The  moral  law  lies  at  the  centre  of  nature 
and  radiates  to  the  circumference.  Man's  victorious 
thought  reduces  all  things,  until  the  world  becomes 
at  last  only  a  realized  will  —  the  double  of  the  man. 
Spirit  alters,  moulds,  makes  nature.  Build  then  your 
own  world.  A  correspondent  revolution  in  things  will 
attend  the  influx  of  the  spirit.  A  nation  of  men  will  for 


62  SKETCH    OF    THE 

the  first  time  exist,  because  each  believes  himself  in 
spired  by  the  Divine  soul  which  also  inspires  all  men." 

Margaret  Fuller  well  reveals  the  fervent  and  exciting 
influence  of  the  new  idea.  Bronson  Alcott  and  Miss 
Fuller  by  their  conversations,  and  Sylvester  Judd  by 
his  "  Margaret :  a  Tale  of  the  Real  and  Ideal,"  gave  it 
currency,  and  instructed  the  inquiring  mind  of  that 
generation. 

What  a  vindication  of  Anne  Hutchinson  and  the 
Quakers  is  Emerson's  declaration  of  the  need  of  a  new 
revelation  !  "  Tradition  characterizes  the  preaching  of 
this  country,"  he  said.  "  The  pulpit  is  usurped  by  for 
malists.  The  assumption  that  the  Bible  is  closed  is  an 
error.  Why  should  not  we  have  a  poetry  and  philoso 
phy  of  insight  and  not  of  tradition,  and  a  religion  by 
revelation  to  us,  and  not  the  history  of  theirs  ? "  But 
then  follows  his  fatal  error,  —  the  rejection  of  personal 
ity,  of  form,  which  so  impedes  and  injures  his  utterance 
both  in  verse  and  prose.  He  preferred  to  think  of  God 
as  "  It."  He  lacked  the  Hebraic  spirit  which  he  dis 
cerned  in  Very.  Emerson  has  well  been  called  Hel 
lenic,  Oriental,  cosmical ;  he  had  reached  a  level  of 
thought  that  enabled  him  to  appreciate  and  sympathize 
with  antique  conceptions.  But  of  Christianity  he  said  : 
"  It  has  dwelt  with  noxious  exaggeration  about  the  per 
son  of  Jesus.  The  soul  knows  no  persons."  Emerson 
halted  between  two  opinions,  realism  and  nominalism. 
His  metaphysics  were  those  of  Parmenides ;  his  ethics, 
of  Protagoras.  This  explains  his  obscurity,  his  incon 
sistencies.  "The  world  is  an  incarnation  of  God"  — 
"One  mind  is  everywhere  active,  in  each  ray  of  the  star, 
in  each  wavelet  of  the  pool,"  he  said  on  the  one  hand ; 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  63 

"  There  was  never  so  great  a  thought  laboring  in  the 
breasts  of  men  as  now ;  the  doctrine,  namely,  of  the  in 
dwelling  of  the  Creator  in  man."  But  then  the  fatal 
flaw,  —  "the  personal  is  unspiritual."  And  so  on  the 
other  hand  he  said  :  "  The  Poet  imparts  spiritual  life  to 
nature.  This  thought  which  is  called  '  I '  is  the  molild 
into  which  the  world  is  poured  like  melted  wax.  It  is 
simpler  to  be  self-dependent :  if  the  single  man  plant 
himself  indomitably  on  his  instincts  and  there  abide, 
the  huge  world  will  come  round  to  him."  Emerson's 
"instincts"  might  perhaps  be  safe  guides  for  him, — 
but  how  about  Napoleon's,  Caesar  Borgia's,  Caligula's, 
or  Sargon's  ?  This  lack  of  a  standard  in  ethics  proved 
the  perplexity  and  peril  of  his  followers :  Brownson 
sought  refuge  in  the  Church  of  Rome ;  Theodore  Par 
ker,  acting  out  the  doctrine  that  "  God  incarnates  him 
self  in  man,  in  Jesus,  in  you  or  me,"  pushed  on  to  a 
bald  psilanthropism.  Perhaps  the  conceit  of  Parker  and 
Thoreau  made  the  idea  less  dangerous,  by  revealing  its 
falsity  and  ugliness.  Thoreau,  that  "suggestion  of  an 
occult  relation  between  man  and  the  vegetable,"  that 
"answer  to  the  theories  of  the  socialists,"  was  a  rednctio 
ad  absurdum  of  the  premises  of  individualism. 

After  the  subsidence  of  a  little  sun-worship,  however, 
and  other  "  untaught  sallies  of  the  spirit,"  the  people 
addressed  themselves  in  earnest  to  the  heavy  task  before 
them.  The  Mexican  War  was  certainly  a  transcenden 
tal  affair,  only  to  be  justified  by  appeal  to  some  "higher 
law  "  than  that  of  nations.  When  the  grave  questions 
resulting  from  it  pressed  for  speedy  solution  ;  when  the 
long  and  subtle  sorites  of  Calhoun,  starting  from  an 
assumption  of  the  ineradicable  selfishness  of  man,  ended 


64  SKETCH    OF    THE 

in  a  recommendation  of  the  Polish  Constitution  ;  Henry 
Clay,  the  great  reconciler,  the  orator  of  sympathy,  sum 
moned  his  party  to  one  supreme  effort,  was  re-enforced 
by  the  majestic  Webster,  who,  looking  forward  rather 
than  back,  saw  the  inestimable  value  to  the  Union  of 
more  years  of  peace;  and  the  Compromise  of  1850  was 
carried.  With  Clay  and  Webster,  in  1852,  died  the 
Whig  party  ;  the  idea  of  the  transcendentalists,  Garrison 
and  John  Brown,  that  "  higher  law  than  the  Constitu 
tion,"  was  left  in  possession  of  the  field,  and  entered 
" practical  politics"  in  the  persons  of  Seward  and  Sum- 
ner;  and  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
the  contest  in  Kansas,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  etc.,  the 
soul  of  the  North  was  slowly  aroused  for  the  "  irrepres 
sible  conflict."  These  are  the  years  when  Hawthorne 
produced  his  marvellous  analyses  of  the  most  fearful 
passions  that  can  agitate  the  human  soul.  Sin  must 
come  up  for  investigation  in  an  ethical  period ;  Haw 
thorne's  subjects  are  the  mysteries  of  iniquity  and  of 
holiness  embodied  in  human  forms.  That  such  pure  art 
should  have  sprung  up  in  such  a  turbulent  period  is  still 
one  of  the  wonders  of  literature. 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE.  65 


V. 

WHEN  the  struggle  between  abstract  morality  and 
self-interest,  between  the  unity  of  intelligence  and  the 
multiplicity  of  passion,  was  over,  the  nation  entered 
upon  a  new  career  of  great  promise  and  grave  responsi 
bilities  in  an  era  not  yet  belonging  to  history.  In  the 
midst  of  seemingly  chaotic  material  progress,  and  ad 
vance  of  the  natural  sciences,  it  is  difficult  to  see  clearly 
what  results  of  recent  authorship  are  likely  to  be  of  per 
manent  worth.  After  the  war,  Bryant,  Longfellow,  and 
Taylor,  as  if  their  power  of  original  production  was  ex 
hausted,  turned  to  translation ;  Sidney  Lanier  endeav 
ored  to  express  the  soul  of  music  in  words,  and  prose 
cuted  the  study  of  poetic  technique  with  all  the  zeal  and 
more  than  the  success  of  Poe  ;  the  didactic  novel  was 
continued  by  Holland  and  Roe ;  and  genre  fiction  has 
undergone  of  late  a  remarkable  development, — for  with 
the  decline  of  sectional  feeling  general  interest  in  every 
section  has  sprung  up. 

In  the  study  of  art,  appreciation  of  the  Italian  paint 
ers  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  has  cor 
rected  the  old  uncritical  and  extravagant  admiration  of 
those  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth.  A  substantial 
architecture,  Romanesque  in  style,  but  modified  to  suit 
our  modern  requirements,  has  replaced  the  Gothic  revi 
vals  (often  of  flimsy  construction)  of  the  previous  epoch. 
The  appearance  of  genre  subjects  in  plastic  art,  and 
their  popularity  in  painting,  together  with  the  rise  of 


66  PHILOSOPHY    OF    AMERICAN    LITERATURE. 

animal  and  still-life  studies,  indicate  that  art  in  America 
has  rounded  its  cycle,  and  that  its  history  may  now  be 
studied  to  advantage. 

If  we  fix  our  attention  for  a  moment  upon  the  later 
works  of  Bayard  Taylor,  we  may  gain  a  comparatively 
clear  view  of  the  dominant  tendencies  in  recent  litera 
ture.  Coming  from  the  Middle  States,  it  was  Taylor's 
gracious  office  to  act  the  reconciler's  part,  to  extend  a 
hand  both  to  North  and  South,  to  be  the  hearty  friend 
of  Longfellow  and  Lanier.  It  is  touching  to  remember 
that  poor  Poe  was  among  the  first  to  praise  and  defend 
Taylor's  earliest  works.  In  the  "  Story  of  Kennett " 
and  in  his  Quaker  ballads,  Taylor  mirrors  the  spirit 
which  has  given  us  many  delightful  sketches  of  life  and 
manners  in  New  England,  Virginia,  South  Carolina, 
Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Indiana,  and  Califor 
nia.  In  "  Lars "  and  many  another  poem,  he  evinces 
the  comprehensiveness  of  his  sympathy,  the  breadth  of 
his  culture.  His  poems  are  filled  with  the  joy  of  exist 
ence  ;  they  are  not  like  crystals,  as  the  best  of  Emer 
son's  are,  —  they  are  like  wine,  and  wine  of  good  body. 
Most  important  of  all  are  "The  Picture  of  Saint  John," 
"The  Masque  of  the  Gods,"  and  "Prince  Deucalion," 
for  these  exhibit  the  profound  influence  of  art  and  the 
history  of  religions  upon  latter  literature.  "Prince 
Deucalion"  is  a  prophecy,  —  it  ends  with  the  query 
"When?"  One  more  spiritual  level  yet  remains  for 
America  to  attain. 


ADVERTISEMENTS. 


HIGHER  ENGLISH. 

(See  also  Classics  for  Children,  pages  3  to  8.) 

Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature. 

Designed  mainly  to  show  characteristics  of  style.  By  WILLIAM  MINTO, 
M.A.,  Professor  of  Logic  and  English  Literature  in  the  University  of 
Aberdeen,  Scotland.  12mo.  Cloth.  566  pages.  Mailing  Price,  $1.65; 
Introduction,  $1.50;  Allowance,  40  cents. 

rpHE  main  design  is  to  assist  in  directing  students  in  English 
composition  to  the  merits  and  defects  of  our  principal  writers 
of  prose,  enabling  them,  in  some  degree  at  least,  to  acquire  the  one 
and  avoid  the  other.  The  Introduction  analyzes  style :  elements 
<>f  style,  qualities  of  style,  kinds  of  composition.  Part  First  gives 
exhaustive  analyses  of  De  Quincey,  Macaulay,  and  Carlyle.  These 
serve  as  a  key  to  all  the  other  authors  treated.  Part  Second  takes 
up  the  prose  authors  in  historical  order,  from  the  fourteenth  cen 
tury  up  to  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth. 


Hiram  Corson,  Prof.  English  Lit 
erature,  Cornell  University :  With 
out  going  outside  of  this  book,  an  ear 
nest  student  could  get  a  knowledge  of 


English  prose  styles,  based  011  the 
soundest  principles  of  criticism,  such 
as  he  could  not  get  in  any  twenty  vol 
umes  which  I  know  of. 


The  Introduction  to  Minto's  English  Prose. 

44  pages.    12mo.    Paper,  15  cents. 

Reprinted  in  this  form  especially  for  the  use  of  the  C.  L.  S.  C. 

Minto's   Characteristics  of  the  English   Poets, 

from  Chaucer  to  Shirley. 

By  WILLIAM  MINTO,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Logic  and  English  Literature 
in  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  Scotland.  12mo.  Cloth.  xi  + 382  pages. 
Mailing  Price,  $1.65;  for  Introduction,  $1.50;  Allowance,  40  cents. 

rTIHE  chief  objects  of  the  author  are:  (1)  To  bring  into  clear 
light  the  characteristics  of  the  several  poets ;  and  (2)  to  trace 
how  far  each  was  influenced  by  his  literary  predecessors  and  his 
contemporaries. 


HIGHER   ENGLISH.  13 

Lessons  in  English. 

Adapted  to  the  Study  of  American  Classics.  A  text-book  for  High 
Schools  and  Academies.  By  SARA  E.  H.  LOCKWOOD,  Teacher  of  Eng 
lish  in  the  High  School,  New  Haven,  Conn.  12mo.  Cloth,  xix  +  403 
pages.  Mailing  Price,  $1.25 ;  for  introduction,  $1.12.  Allowance  for  an 
old  book  in  exchange,  35  cents. 

Thanatopsis  and  Other  Favorite  Poems  of  Bryant. 

Prepared  especially  to  accompany  Lpckwood's  Lessons  in  English. 
12mo.  Paper.  61  pages.  Mailing  Price,  12  cents;  for  introd.,  10  cts. 

rpHIS  is,  in  a  word,  a  practical  High  School  text-book  of  English, 
embracing  language,  composition,  rhetoric,  and  literature.  It 
aims  to  present,  in  simple  and  attractive  style,  the  essentials  of 
good  English ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  develop  a  critical  literary 
taste,  by  applying  these  technical  rules  and  principles  to  the  study 
of  American  Classics. 

The  plan  provides  for  a  course  in  English  extending  over  the 
pupil's  first  year  and  a  half  in  the  High  School,  the  work  being 
preparatory  to  the  study  of  English  Literature  as  usually  pursued 
in  schools  of  this  grade.  These  "  Lessons  "  include  the  most  im 
portant  facts  concerning  the  History  and  Elements  of  the  Lan 
guage,  Common  Errors  in  the  Use  of  English,  the  Study  of  Words, 
Rules  for  the  Construction  of  Sentences,  Figures  of  Speech,  Punc 
tuation,  Letter- Writing,  Composition,  and  Biographical  Sketches 
of  the  seven  authors  particularly  studied,  —  Irving,  Bryant,  Long 
fellow,  Whittier,  Hawthorne,  Holmes,  and  Lowell. 

No  other  text-book  on  English  includes  so  much.  It  is  at  once 
a  text-book  of  rhetoric,  a  hand-book  of  composition,  and  an  in 
troduction  to  American  literature.  A  valuable  addition  to  the 
book  will  be  found  in  the  lists  of  references  given  at  the  close 
of  most  of  the  chapters  and  after  each  biographical  sketch.  These 
are  intended  to  aid  teachers  in  their  preparation  of  the  lessons, 
and  to  furnish  pupils  with  additional  sources  of  information. 

The  work  is  the  outgrowth  of  years  of  experience  in  the  school 
room.  The  plan  has  been  thoroughly  tested,  and  proved  to  be  a 
good  one.  Both  teachers  and  pupils  testify  that  by  this  plan  the 
study  of  English  is  made  exceedingly  interesting  and  far  more 
profitable  than  it  was  when  more  theoretical  text-books  were  in 
use.  Teachers  will  find  in  the  book  many  valuable  exercises  and 
lists  of  questions,  and  many  helpful  suggestions  as  to  methods. 


14 


HIGHER   ENGLISH. 


John  F.  Genung,  Prof,  of  Rhetoric 
in  Amhcrst  College,  and  author  of 
"  The  Practical  Elements  of  Rheto 
ric":  It  is  clearly  written,  concise, 
with  abundant  exercises,  and  taking 
up  the  most  useful  points. 

T.  Whiting  Bancroft,  Prof,  of  Rhet 
oric,  Brown  University,  Providence, 
R.I. :  It  successfully  solves  the  prob 
lem  to  give  in  condensed  form  an 
introduction  to  the  study  of  our 
American  classics.  .  .  .  The  author's 
selection  of  material  is  wisely  made. 

Margaret  E.  Stratton,  Prof,  of 
English  and  Rhetoric,  Wellesley  Col 
lege  :  It  gives  a  clear  and  systematic 
presentation  of  the  subject,  and  must 
greatly  facilitate  the  work  of  the 
teacher  who  lays  stress  not  on  for 
mal  rules  but  on  the  frequent  prac 
tice  of  rules,  and  seeks  to  give  with 
rules  abundant  illustration ;  and  what 
is  still  more  important,  tries  to  awake 
in  young  minds  a  just  appreciation 
of  the  importance  of  English  through 
the  delightful  medium  of  our  best 
writers. 

James  E.  Thomas,  English  High 
School,  Boston :  The  best  text-book 
I  have  thus  far  seen  for  the  study  of 
English  in  the  high  schools. 

Harriet  0.  Nelson,  Teacher  of  Lit 
erature,  High  School,  Haverhill, 
Mass. :  It  seems  to  me  one  of  the 
most  practical  and  suggestive  works 
that  I  have  ever  seen. 

E.  W.  Boyd,  Head  St.  Agnes  School, 
Albany,  N.Y.:  It  is  the  most  satis 
factory  book  of  the  kind  I  have  ever 
seen. 

Charles  McLenegan,  High  School^ 
Milwaukee :  The  use  of  the  book 
will  be  a  long  step  in  the  right  direc 
tion.  .  .  .  The  simplicity  and  clear 
ness  of  the  book  are  beautiful.  I  do 
not  think  I  ever  saw  a  book  of  its 


kind  with  so  little  of  the  dry-as-dust 
about  it. 

H.  Lee  Sellers,  Prin.  High  School, 
Galveston :  To  my  mind  it  is  the  very 
book  we  have  wanted  for  many  years. 

George  A.  Walton,  Agent  Massa 
chusetts  Board  of  Education :  It 
must  prove  a  useful  book.  The  mat 
ter  and  the  method  are  excellent. 

Alfred  S.  Roe,  Prin.  High  School, 
Worcester,  Mass. :  I  have  looked  the 
book  through  carefully,  and  I  can 
unqualifiedly  approve  it.  I  know  of 
nothing  better. 

J.  A.  Graves,  Prin.  South  School, 
Hartford,  Conn. :  I  know  of  no  book 
that  seems  to  me  so  well  adapted  to 
the  wants  of  high  schools  and  acade 
mies. 

E.  J.  MacEwan,  Prof,  of  English, 
Michigan  Agricultural  College :  I 
know  of  nothing  that  can  compare 
with  it  for  a  two  years'  course  in  the 
public  schools,  —  say  last  year  of 
grammar  grade  and  first  year  »f 
high  school.  I  shall  be  glad  to  put 
in  a  word  as  occasion  offers  to  help 
you  in  getting  it  into  such  grades, 
and  in  helping  grades  to  get  the  best 
thing  for  themselves  at  the  same 
time. 

H.  F.  Estill,  Instructor  in  Lan 
guage,  Sam  Houston  Normal  Insti 
tute,  Huntsville,  Tex. :  In  my  opinion 
the  book  is  an  admirably  clear,  com 
pact,  and  attractive  presentation  of 
the  essentials  of  English,  and  can 
not  fail  to  awake  in  the  pupil  an 
appreciation  of  the  strength  and 
beauty  of  his  native  tongue,  as  well 
as  to  train  him  in  the  art  of  correct 
and  elegant  expression.  The  chap 
ters  on  letter-writing  and  composi 
tion  are  especially  good.  We  have 
decided  to  introduce  it  at  once  in 
the  Normal  School. 


HIGHER   ENGLISH.  15 

The  Practical  Elements  of  Rhetoric. 

By  JOHN  F.  GENUNG,  Ph.D..  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Amherst  College. 
12mo.  Cloth,  xiv  +  483  pages.  Mailing  Price,  $1.40;  for  Introduction, 
$  125 ;  allowance  for  an  old  book  in  exchange,  40  cents. 

rpHE  treatment  is  characterized  by  good  sense,  simplicity,  origi 
nality,  availability,  completeness,  and  ample  illustration. 

The  author  recognizes  that  rhetoric  is  only  means  to  an  end, 
and  that  its  rules  and  principles  and  devices  must  be  employed 
with  caution  and  good  sense. 

Great  care  has  been  taken  to  free  the  treatment  from  artificialities. 

Traditional  principles  and  rules  have  been  carefully  considered, 
but  discarded  unless  found  to  rest  on  a  basis  of  truth  and  practical 
value.  The  treatment  is  throughout  constructive  and  the  student 
is  regarded  at  every  step  as  endeavoring  to  make  literature.  The 
work  has  been  prepared  not  more  in  the  study  than  in  the  class 
room.  All  of  the  literary  forms  have  been  given  something  of  the 
fulness  hitherto  accorded  only  to  argument  and  oratory.  No  im 
portant  principle  has  been  presented  without  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  usage  of  the  best  authorities. 

Genung's  Rhetoric,  though  a  work  on  a  trite  subject,  has  aroused 
general  enthusiasm  by  its  freshness  and  practical  worth.  Among 
the  many  leading  institutions  that  have  introduced  it  are  Yale, 
Wellesley,  and  Smith  Colleges ;  Cornell,  Johns  Hopkins,  Vander- 
bilt,  and  Northwestern  Universities ;  and  the  Universities  of  Vir 
ginia,  North  Carolina,  Illinois,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  and  Michigan. 


C.  F.  Kichardson,  Prof  .  of  English 
Literature,  Dartmouth  College,  and 
author  of  a  History  of  American 
Literature :  I  find  it  excellent  both 
in  plan  and  execution. 

Miss  M.  A.  Jordan,  Prof,  of  Rhet 
oric,  Smith  College,  Northampton, 
Mass.  :  The  critic  is  conscious  of  a 
feeling  of  surprise  as  he  misses  the 
orthodox  dulness.  The  analysis  of 
topics  is  clear,  the  illustrations  are 
pertinent  and  of  value  in  themselves, 
the  rules  are  concise  and  portable. 

T.  W.  Hunt,  Prof,  of  Eng.  Litera 
ture,  Princeton  College,  Princeton, 
N.J. ;  It  impresses  me  as  a  philo 


sophic  and  useful  manual.  I  like 
especially  its  literary  spirit. 

Jas.  M.  Garnett,  Prof,  of  English, 
University  of  Virginia :  I  have  care 
fully  read  the  whole  of  it,  and  am 
determined  to  introduce  it  at  once 
into  my  class.  It  suits  me  better 
than  any  other  text-book  of  rhetoric 
that  I  have  examined. 

W.  H.  Magruder,  Prof,  of  English, 
Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College 
of  Mississippi :  For  clearness  of 
thought,  lucidity  of  expression,  apt 
ness  of  illustration, — in  short,  for 
real  teaching  power,  —  I  have  never 
seen  this  work  equalled. 


16 


HIGHER   ENGLISH. 


A  Handbook  of  Rhetorical  Analysis. 

Studies  in  Style  and  Invention,  designed  to  accompany  the  author's 
Practical  Elements  of  Rhetoric.  By  JOHN  F.  GENUNG,  Ph.D.,  Pro 
fessor  of  Rhetoric  in  Amherst  College.  12mo.  Cloth,  xii  +  306  pages. 
Mailing  Price,  $1.25  ;  Introduction  and  Teachers'  Price,  $1.12. 


" 


handbook  follows  the  general  plan  of  the  larger  text-book, 
being  designed  to  alternate  with  that  from  time  to  time,  as 
different  stages  of  the  subject  are  reached.  Under  the  two  heads 
of  Studies  in  Style  and  Studies  in  Invention,  a  series  of  selections 
from  the  best  prose  writers  is  given,  with  notes,  questions,  and 
references,  bringing  out  whatever  is  theoretically  instructive 
therein  ;  the  whole  so  arranged  as  to  illustrate,  in  progressive  and 
cumulative  order,  the  various  procedures  of  discourse,  from  simple 
choice  of  words  up  to  the  delicate  inventive  problems  of  narration 
and  oratory. 

Genung's  Rhetoric,  followed  by  the  Rhetorical  Analysis,  and  this 
by  Minto  (see  page  12),  make  a  course  that  has  been  found  emi 
nently  interesting  and  fruitful. 


Margaret  E.  Stratton,  Prof,  of 
Ena.  and  Rhetoric,  Wellesley  Col 
lege  :  I  find  in  the  book  just  the  kind 
of  work  I  have  tried  to  give  my 
classes,  and  so  arranged  that  even  a 
dull  student  must  become  interested, 
and  gain  in  the  power  of  composition. 
I  consider  Prof.  Genung's  work  in 
both  his  Rhetoric  and  Handbook  a 
most  valuable  contribution  to  the 
study  of  English.  (Oct.  5, 1889.) 

J.  H.  Gilmore,  Prof,  of  Rhetoric, 
Univ.  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.:  This  strikes 
me  as  a  very  significant  attempt  to 
open  a  road  that  college  students  espe 
cially  need  to  travel.  (Sept.  1, 1889.) 

W.  B.  Chamberlain,  Prof,  of  Rhet 
oric,  Oberlin  College,  Oberlin,  Ohio  : 
The  Analysis  particularly  pleases  me, 
as  affording  a  very  natural  and  prac 
tical  bridging  from  rhetoric  to  lit 
erature.  The  plan,  contents,  and 
execution  seem  to  me  about  nil  that 
could  be  desired.  Every  live  teacher 


of  rhetoric  has  tried  to  give  his 
classes  something  of  such  work  in 
connection  with  his  text-book;  but 
the  results  that  may  be  attained  by 
means  of  this  help  must  be  far  more 
satisfactory  than  those  secured  in 
more  desultory  ways.  (Nov.  18, 1889.) 

W.  J.  Eolfe,  Editor  of  Shake 
speare,  etc. :  It  is  the  best  thing  in 
the  way  of  practical  rhetoric  that  I 
have  ever  seen.  The  selections  are 
singularly  happy,  and  the  analysis 
of  them  is  admirable. 

John  Seath,  Inspector  of  High 
Schools,  Ontario :  It  is  the  first 
good,  systematic  application  of  rhet 
oric  that  I  have  seen.  I  recommend 
it  heartily  to  teachers  of  English.  It 
cannot  but  prove  eminently  useful. 

E.  P.  Anderson,  Prof,  of  English 
Literature  and  History,  Ohio  Univ., 
Athens,  Ohio :  I  think  it  is  an  ad 
mirable  work,  helpful  alike  to  stu 
dents  of  rhetoric  and  of  literature. 


HIGHER   ENGLISH. 


17 


Hudson's  Expurgated  Shakespeare. 

For  Schools,  Clubs,  and  Families.  Revised  and  enlarged  Editions  ot 
twenty-three  Plays.  Carefully  expurgated,  with  Explanatory  Notes  at 
the  bottom  of  the  page,  and  Critical  Notes  at  the  end  of  each  volume. 
By  H.  N.  HUDSON,  LL.D.,  Editor  of  The  Harvard  Shakespeare.  One 
play  in  each  volume  Square  16mo.  Varying  in  size  from  128-253 
pages.  Mailing  Price  of  each:  Cloth,  50  cents;  Paper,  35  cents.  Intro 
duction  Price:  Cloth,  45  cents;  Paper,  30  cents.  Per  set  tin.  box) 
$12.00.  (To  Teachers,  $10.00.)  For  list  see  next  page. 

O  OME  of  the  special  features  of  this  edition  are  the  convenient 
size  and  shape  of  the  volumes ;  the  clear  type,  superior  press- 
work,  and  attractive  binding;  the  ample  introductions:  the  ex 
planatory  notes,  easily  found  at  the  foot  of  the  page;  the  critical 
notes  for  special  study;  the  judicious  expurgation,  never  mangling 
either  style  or  story;  the  acute  and  sympathetic  criticism  that  has 
come  to  be  associated  with  Dr.  HUDSON'S  name ;  and,  finally,  the 
reasonableness  of  the  price. 


Oliver  Wendell  Holmes:  An  edi 
tion  of  any  play  of  Shakespeare's  to 
which  Mr.  Hudson's  name  is  affixed 
does  not  need  a  line  from  anybody  to 
commend  it. 

Cyrus  Northrop,  Prof,  of  English 
Literature,  Yale  College:  They  are 
convenient  in  form  and  edited  by 
Hudson,  —  two  good  things  which  I 
^an  see  at  a  glance. 

Hiram  Corson,  Prof,  of  Rhet.  and 
Eiuj.  Lit.,  Cornell  University :  I  con 
sider  thorn  altogether  excellent.  The 
notes  give  all  the  aid  needed  for  an 
understanding  of  the  text,  without 
waste  and  distraction  of  the  student's 
mind.  The  introductory  matter  to 
the  several  plays  is  especially  worthy 
of  approbation.  (Jan.  28,  1887.) 

C.  F.  P.  Bancroft,  Prin.  of  Phil 
lips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass.:  Mr. 
Hudson's  appreciation  of  Shake 
speare  amounted  to  genius.  His 
editing  accordingly  exhibits  more 
than  learning  arid  industry. — it  re 
veals  insight,  sympathy,  and  convic 
tion.  He  leads  the  pupil  into  the 


very  mind  and  heart  of  "  the  thou. 
sand-souled  Shakespeare." 

Byron  Groce,  Master  in  Public 
Latin  School,  Boston:  The  amended 
text  is  satisfactory;  the  typography 
is  excellent;  the  notes  are  brief,  al 
ways  helpful,  not  too  numerous,  and 
put  where  they  will  do  the  most  good ; 
the  introductions  are  vigorous,  in 
spiriting,  keenly  and  soundly  critical, 
and  very  attractive  to  boys, especially 
on  account  of  their  directness  and 
warmth,  for  all  boys  like  enthusi 
asm.  (Jan.  22, 1887.) 

C.  T.  Winchester,  Prof,  of  English, 
Wesley  an  University :  The  notes  and 
comments  in  the  school  edition  are 
admirably  fitted  to  the  need  of  the 
student,  removing  his  difficulties  by 
stimulating  his  interest  and  quicken 
ing  his  perception.  (Feb.  10,  1887.) 

A.  C.  Perkins,  Prin.  of  Adelphu, 
Academy,  Brooklyn:  In  the  prepa 
ration  of  the  School  Shakespeare, 
Mr.  Hudson  met  fully  the  capacities 
and  needs  of  students  in  our  school* 
and  colleges.  (Fet>.  4, 1887.) 


18  HIGHER   ENGLISH. 

• 

The  list  is  as  follows  : 

*A  Midsummer-Night's  Dream.3  *Henry  the  Eighth.8 

*The  Merchant  of  Venice.1  *Romeo  and  Juliet.3 

*Much  Ado  About  Nothing.3  *Julius  Caesar.1 

*As  You  Like  It.1      Twelfth  Night.1  "Hamlet.1 
*The  Tempest.2          The  Winter's  Tale.2     *King  Lear.2 

King  John.                  Richard  Second.  *Macbeth.2 

Richard  Third.2  Antony  and  Cleopatra.2 

*Henry  Fourth,  Part  First.1  *Othello.3 

Henry  Fourth,  Part  Second.1  Cymbeline.3 

*Henry  the  Fifth.2  *Coriolanus.3 

Old  Edition,  paper,  plays  starred  above.  By  Mail,  20  cts.  ;  Introd.,  15  cts. 

Hudson's  Three-Volume  Shakespeare. 

For  Schools,  Families,  and  Clubs.  With  Introductions  and  Notes  on 
each  Play.  12mo.  Cloth.  636-678  pages  per  volume.  Mailing  Price, 
per  volume,  $1.40;  Introduction,  $1.25.  The  plays  included  in  the  three 
volumes  respectively  are  indicated  by  figures  in  the  above  list. 

Shakespeare  's  Complete  Works.  Harvard  Edition. 

By  HENRY  N.  HUDSON,  LL.D.  In  Twenty  Volumes,  12mo,  two  plays  in 
each  volume.  Retail  Price  :  Cloth,  $25'.00;  half  calf,  $55.00.  Also  in 
Ten  Volumes,  of  four  plays  each.  Retail  Price  :  Cloth,  $20.00;  half 
calf,  $40.00. 


is  pre-eminently  the  edition  for  libraries,  students,  and 
general  readers.     The  type,  paper,  and  binding  are  attractive 
and  superior,  and  the  notes  represent  the  editor's  ripest  thought. 

One  obvious  merit  is,  that  each  volume  has  two  sets  of  notes  ; 
one  mainly  devoted  to  explaining  the  text,  and  placed  at  the  foot 
of  the  page  ;  the  other  mostly  occupied  with  matters  of  textual 
comment  and  criticism,  and  printed  at  the  end  of  each  play. 


E.  P.  Whipple,  The  Noted  Critic  : 
Hudson's  is  the  most  thoughtful  and 
intelligent  interpretative  criticism 


which  has,  during  the  present  cen 
tury,  been  written,  either  in  English 
or  German. 


Life,  Art,  and  Characters  of  Shakespeare. 

By  HENRY  N.  HUDSON,  LL.D.,  Editor  of  The  Harvard  Shakespeare,  etc. 
In  2  vols.  12mo.  1003  pages.  Uniform  in  size  and  binding  with  The 
Harvard  Shakespeare.  Retail  Price :  Cloth,  $4.00 ;  half  calf,  $8.00. 


Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody, Harvard  College  : 
I  regard  the  edition  as  unequalled  in 
Shakespearian  scholarship,  and  in  its 


worth  in  the  library  and  for  current 
use ;  and  I  yield  to  no  one  in  the  high 
est  regard  for  the  editor. 


DID  YOU  KNOW 

That  while  Surrey  and  Wyatt  were  writing  their  sonnets,  Zwingle, 
the  great  Swiss  reformer,  was  finishing  his  work,  Luther  was  lay 
ing  about  him  in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  and  the  Jesuit  Order 
was  germinating  in  the  brain  of  Loyola;  that  Solyman  the 
Magnificent  was  besieging  Vienna;  that  Copernicus  was  cre 
ating  modern  astronomy  ;  that  Cortez  and  Pizarro  were  furnish 
ing  new  synonyms  for  cruelty  and  rapacity ;  that  Italy  was 
mourning  Raphael  and  praising  Michael  Angelo,  and  Germany 
was  learning  art  from  the  pencil  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  "  Chau 
cer  of  painting  " ;  that  execrations  of  the  Borgias  were  still 
echoing  across  the  Alps  to  mingle  with  plaudits  of  Magellan, 
the  circumnavigator,  and  of  Bayard,  the  knight  without  fear 
and  without  reproach? 

One  can  gather  all  these  and  similar  facts  at  a  glance  in 


though  this  is  only  one  of  the  merits  of  the  work.  The  book 
gives 

The  author's  full  name  ; 

The  dates  of  his  birth  and  death ; 

The  class  of  writers  to  which  he  belonged ; 

The  chronological  place  of  that  class  in  the  development  of 
literature ; 

His  best-known  works ; 

His  contemporaries  at  home  and  abroad ; 

Leading  events  in  the  general  history  of  his  time ; 

And,  in  most  cases,  a  few  words  of  explanation  or  criticism. 

The  general  characteristics  of  the  various  periods  also  are 
briefly  stated.  

Teacher's  and  Introductory  Price,  80  cts. 

GINN  &  COMPANY,  Publishers, 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK,  AND  CHICAGO. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


WAY  2  5  1955 
APR24195T 


Form  L-9-20m-8,'37 


m 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    001  231  161    9 


PS31 

W58 

cop. 2 


